A former governor of Kwara State and ex-senator, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, is dead.
Family sources confirmed that he passed away in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja at the age of 84.
Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Kwara State, Adebayo had a long and active career in public service. He was elected senator in 1979 under the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later became governor of Kwara State in 1983.
He also served as Minister of Communications between 2003 and 2006.
Adebayo was a committed member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the group that fought for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993 mandate believed to have been won by Chief MKO Abiola.
In 1993, he rejected an offer to serve in the military government of General Sani Abacha. Two years later, on May 31, 1995, a bomb exploded in Ilorin, and Adebayo was among NADECO leaders arrested and questioned by security agents.
Amid continued clampdown on pro-democracy activists, Adebayo went into exile in Canada in 1996 after escaping what was believed to be a second attempt to arrest him.
His death marks the end of a significant chapter in Nigeria’s democratic journey.
