Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu, has passed on after a long bout with terminal illness.
Akeredolu died at 67 Wednesday. He was due to be flown to Germany to continue treatment but he suffered complications.
Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, disclosed this in a statement announcing the governor’s death in Akure, the state capital.
“Governor Akeredolu answered the eternal call while receiving medical treatment in Germany,” the commissioner said. “He succumbed to complications arising from protracted prostate cancer.”
The governor who was down with leukemia and prostrate cancer had been away in Germany for most of 2023, but returned after three months in September. He was unable to return to office, but failed to hand over to his deputy Lucky Aiyedatiwa causing a political standoff.
But early December as prepared for another medical trip to Germany, he handover to Mr. Aiyedatiwa.
Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and ex-Attorney General of Ondo State, he was serving his second-term governor before his death.
During his first tenure he was one of the governors who opposed former President Muhammadu Buhari’s drive to establish ‘Ruga’ settlement for herdsmen.
Akeredolu was the backbone in the formation of the security outfit Omoteku in the Western States as armed cattle herders threatened to overrun the country.
One his worst moment as governor was the massacre of worshipers at St Francis Catholic Church Owo his home town in June 2022.
