Chief Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, a former civilian governor of Kwara State, has passed away. He died in the early hours of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Abuja, according to family sources.
He was 84 years old.
Born on February 24, 1941, in Oke Onigbin, Kwara State, Adebayo served as the state’s governor from October 1 to December 31, 1983.
Before that, he represented Kwara in the Senate between 1979 and 1983 on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Adebayo also served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications from 2003 to 2006. A staunch democrat, he was a prominent member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the pro-democracy group that led the campaign to reclaim the June 12, 1993 presidential mandate of MKO Abiola.
In 1993, Adebayo declined an offer to serve in the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
Two years later, he was arrested and interrogated by the police following a bomb explosion in Ilorin on May 31, 1995. As pressure from the junta mounted, he fled Nigeria in 1996 and went into temporary exile in Canada.
