Former Kwara State Governor, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, is dead. He was aged 84.
Adebayo, a former senator and minister, died in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja. His family confirmed the development to reporters.
Born on February 24, 1941, in Igbaja, Kwara State, Adebayo served as governor of the state in 1983. He was elected senator in 1979 under the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Adebayo also served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications between 2003 and 2006 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was a leading member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a group that resisted military rule and campaigned for the restoration of the June 12, 1993, presidential mandate won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola.
In 1993, he rejected an offer to serve in the military government of the late General Sani Abacha. He later faced police harassment linked to opposition activities following a bomb explosion in 1995 and went into exile in Canada in 1996.
Before his political career, Adebayo served as Kwara State Commissioner for Education from 1975 to 1978.
Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.
