By Admin:
Former Governor of Kwara State and one-time Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo is dead.
According to the family, late Chief Cornelius Adebayo died at the early hours of today at the age of Eighty-four.
Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Ifelodun Local Government Area of the State, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo attended at the All Saints Anglican School, Oke-Onigbin, Provincial Secondary School, Ilorin and then at Barewa College, Zaria from 1962 to 1963.
He was Commissioner for Education and later Commissioner for Information and Economic Development in Kwara State between 1975 and 1978 as well as an elected Senator, Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN.
In 1983, he was elected governor of Kwara state, but was removed on 31, December 1983, when the military overthrow led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari took control and later became Minister during the Olusegun Obasanjo-led government.
He was elected as a senator in 1979 on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Adebayo was a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which played a key role in the pro-democracy movement to restore the mandate given to MKO Abiola in the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
In 1993, Adebayo was offered a ministerial position in the Sani Abacha junta but declined.
On May 31, 1995, a bomb exploded in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.
Following the incident, the police arrested and interrogated Adebayo along with other NADECO members.
In 1996, he went into brief exile in Canada after fleeing the country, as the military junta was reportedly closing in on him for a second time.
Meanwhile, the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman Kwara State Traditional Rulers Council, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari has commiserated with the State Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq over the demise of the former Governor Cornelius Adebayo.
Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, in a condolence message by his Press Secretary, Dr. Abdulazeez Arowona, described late C.O. Adebayo as an administrator par excellence and elderstatesman.
He noted that the deceased contributed his quotas to the development of the state within his short period tenure in office as the Kwara State Governor before the military took over power in 1983.
Alhaji Sulu-Gambari however condoled the immediate and extended family members of the late Governor, government and people of Kwara State, his friends and political associates over the incident.
The Emir prayed God to repose his soul and give the family members the faith to bear the irreplaceable loss.
