NAN-H-196
Atiku
By Emmanuel Mogbede
Abuja, March 8, 2017 (NAN) Former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar has described the late Maj.-Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo (retired) as a remarkable statesman who belonged to the last vestiges of Nigeria’s pioneering heroes.
The former vice-president, who is also a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), stated this in a condolence message on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said Adebayo, who was a former President of Yoruba council of elders, was also a proficient administrator and an outstanding soldier who fought to keep the country together.
“Much later in his lifetime, he championed the cause of the Yoruba nation in an inclusive Nigerian project, so enviably that historians will eminently have a record of him as a pan-Nigerian advocate,” Atiku said.
He condoled with the Adebayo family, the government and people of Ekiti state over the loss of an illustrious leader, and prayed for the repose of his soul.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Adebayo, 89, who died in his sleep on Wednesday, was a former Military Governor of Western region after the late Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi.
As governor of the Western region, he promoted agricultural extension services, in particular, the establishment of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan.
Adebayo was at All Saints School, Iyin-Ekiti in 1928 and later attended Eko Boys High School and Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti.
He joined the West African Frontier Force in 1948 as a regiment signaler and later completed the Officers Cadet Training Course in Teshie, Ghana from 1950 to 1952.
After passing the War Office Examination for Commonwealth cadets in 1952 and the West African qualifying examination in 1953, Adebayo was commissioned as an officer in the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF).
The late Adebayo later attended the Staff College course in Camberley (Surrey) in 1960 and the prestigious Imperial Defence College, London in 1965 where he was the only African officer.
A retired Maj.-Gen, Adebayo was the Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army from February 1964 to November 1965, the first indigenous chief of staff of to occupy such position in the country.
EEM/DOR/DUA
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Edited by Nyisom Dore/Dada Ahmed