Former Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has expressed shock over the sudden death of Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, a former Managing Director of Daily Times newspaper and highly respected literary and political icon from Kogi State.
Onukaba, 57, was reported to have died on Sunday at about 6 pm in a village near Akure, Ondo State, in an accident while trying to escape from an armed robbery attack.
The veteran journalist was said to be on his way back to Abuja from Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he had joined other dignitaries to attend the 80th birthday anniversary of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the official opening of his Presidential Library.
The late Onukaba was among the 28 aspirants that participated in the primary election for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress for the 2015 governorship election in Kogi State, which produced the late Prince Abubakar Audu as the candidate of the party.
Abatemi-Usman, who came third in the 2015 Kogi APC guber primary poll, said that the late Onukaba was a gentleman to the core, who did not see politics as a do-or-die affair.
Describing the late Onukaba as a man who has made his mark in his chosen career of journalism, Abatemi-Usman said his death was a great loss to the entire people of Ebiraland, Kogi State and Nigeria in general, adding, “I received with great shock the news of the demise of Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba. It is, indeed, a very sad and painful news to us. Onukaba was a complete gentleman and a sober voice in our chaotic political clime.”
The former lawmaker, who represented Kogi Central senatorial district in the Seventh Senate, prayed God to grant Onukaba a peaceful repose and his family, the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
