Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWN, ANTHONY OBAJE Abuja, EMMANUEL ADEYEMI, Lokoja on
Death sneaked in like a thief in the night Wednesday and snatched away frontline politician and chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, who had been battling to stay alive since he was involved in an auto crash two weeks ago.
Death sneaked in like a thief in the night Wednesday and snatched away frontline politician and chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, who had been battling to stay alive since he was involved in an auto crash two weeks ago.
The family of the late politician confirmed that Awoniyi, aged 75, died in a London hospital at about 11p.m on Wednesday. He was rushed to the hospital after the accident along Kaduna-Abuja way, after Doka village, about 60 kilometres from Kaduna. The car was completely wrecked.
The accident, which former Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Adamu Waziri Fika, had described as 'very nasty" had left Awoniyi with bruises on the ankle and the back of his head. He had also complained of pain in the right shoulder.
Awoniyi was the Aro of Mopa, in Kogi State. He was an assistant secretary in the office of the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, in the 1960s.
He also served as a Federal Permanent Secretary for many years.
Born on April 30, 1932 at Mopa, to Pa Solomon Iwalaiye and Mrs Dorcas Omoboja, who had only Awoniyi as her child, the late politician had his primary education at the Baptist Day School, Mopa between 1938 and 1944, as well as the Holy Trinity School, Lokoja from 1945 to 1946.
For his secondary education, he attended the Kabba Provincial Middle School, Okene, from 1947 to 1949 from where he proceeded to the famous Barewa College, Zaria, from 1950 to 1953.
In 1999, he was chairman of the organizing committee of the Jos national convention, of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) where Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was nominated as presidential standard bearer. He, however, fell out with Obasanjo after he became president, and for the last eight years, Awoniyi was well known for his biting criticisms of the former president.
Awoniyi is survived by two wives Mrs. Florence Ebun Awoniyi and Mrs. Benedicta Omowunmi Awoniyi, many children and grand children.