Society Gists

The former governor of the now defunct Western State of Nigeria, Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, is dead.

Family sources said the 89-year-old died in his sleep.

The late Adebayo became governor after Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi’s death in the 1966 coup d’état, ruling from 4 Aug 1966 to April 1971.

Adebayo was born in 1928, the son of a Public Works employee from Iyin Ekiti, near Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.

He was educated at All Saints School, Iyin-Ekiti, 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 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 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 in 1960 and the prestigious Imperial Defence College, London in late 1965 where he was the only African officer.