Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

The Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr Michael Adeyemo, a legal practitioner, is dead. Oyo State speaker dies at 46.

He was said to have slumped and died on Thursday evening, barely five years after the demise of his wife.

Daily Sun gathered that Adeyemo, who reportedly drove himself from his Office at the Oyo State House of Assembly Complex, Agodi, Ibadan, to his residence at Elebu axis of October, Oluyole Estate, was said to have dropped the car key on the centre table of his living room and slumped as he walked away from it.

He was said to have been rushed to Ibadan’s Jericho Specialist Hospital for medical attention shortly after he collapsed. But he was reportedly confirmed dead at the hospital. His remains were subsequently transferred to the Anatomy Department, University of Ibadan.

An unconfirmed report stated that his death might not be unconnected with hypertension, which he was said to have been managing for some time.

The Majority Leader, Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr Kehinde Subair, who confirmed the death, betrayed emotions as he spoke with journalists on phone on Friday morning, saying: “His death came as a rude shock to us because he never showed any sign of ill health. He drove himself home from the office the day he died, and the report get to us later that he slumped and all efforts to revive him proved abortive. Till now, we are still in shock.”

When Daily Sun visited the Secretary to Oyo State Government, Alhaji Olalekan Alli, in his office on Friday morning, he was in a meeting with the Chief of Staff to Governor Abiola Ajimobi, Dr Gbade Ojo, and Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Adeniyi Olowofela, discussing the incident.

But Alli took time to attend to journalists, saying an official statement would be released by the government on the death of the Speaker.

Michael Adeyemo was born on November 22, 1972, and hailed from Lanlate in Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo state.

Alli said that State Governor Ajimobi would be in the office soon and he would be taking questions from the media.

Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in the state, Mr Toye Arulogun, was heard on a radio programme on Friday morning during which he confirmed the death and promised that a statement would soon be issued on the incident.

Adeyemo, who would have clocked 47 years on November 22, was elected into the Oyo State House of Assembly in 2011 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he was working in the Law Hub, which is the Law Chambers of Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), who is the present governor of Ondo State.

Adeyemo was reelected in 2015.

The deceased lost his wife during his first term in the state House of Assembly on his birthday in 2013.

Adeyemo left behind two boys who are below 10 years old.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) on Friday morning paid sympathy visits to the House of Assembly to commiserate with the lawmakers.

The NULGE chairman in Oyo State, Mr Titilola Sodo, described the death as a shock, saying Speaker Adeyemo was a vibrant man.