Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
A former Ekiti State Governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, has lost his father to the cold hands of death.
The deceased, General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, was the former Military Governor of the now defunct Western Region of Nigeria.
He ruled the region from 1966 to 1971, after the demise of Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi in the famous 1966 coup.
The late Adebayo, born in 1928, attended the All Saints School in Iyin-Ekiti before going to Eko Boys High School and Christ’s School Ado Ekiti.
He joined the West African Frontier Force in 1948 as a regiment signaller and later completed the Officer Cadet Training Course in Teshie, Ghana from 1950 to 1952.
After passing the War Office Examination for Commonwealth cadets in 1952 as well as the West African qualifying examination in 1953, he was commissioned as an officer in the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF) as the 23rd West African military officer with number WA23 and 7th Nigerian military officer with number N7 after completing the War Office Cadet Training in Eaton Hall, England.
He later attended the Staff College course in Camberley (Surrey) in 1960 and the prestigious Imperial Defence College, London in late 1965 where he was the only African officer.
He was the son of a Public Works employee from Iyin Ekiti, near Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State and father to former executive Governor of the state, Mr Niyi Adebayo, who governed Ekiti from 1999 to 2003.
He lost the seat then to the present Governor of the state, Mr Ayodele Fayose.
