Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has described the late ex-Ondo State governor, Evang. Bamidele Olumilua as a leader who valued self-respect, saying he was never a contract-seeking individual in quest for material acquisition.
According to the governor, the late Olumilua never wavered from telling the truth to power owing to the fact that he was not materialistic or compromised his integrity through unnecessary drives for contracts and other enjoyments. He spoke in Ikere-Ekiti, yesterday during an interdenominational funeral service held for the late former governor of old Ondo State.
Olumilua who died on June 4, 2020, at the age of 80, was the governor of the old Ondo State between 1992 and 1993, on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Ace gospel musician, Evangelist Bola Are, rendered songs at the ceremony held at the chapel built within the premises of Great Expectations Hotel owned by the late All Progressives Congress (APC) leader along Ado-Akure highway in Ikere-Ekiti.
Dignitaries present included: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), represented by the Presidential Adviser on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, as well as former Ekiti State governors, Segun Oni and Ayodele Fayose among others. In his sermon entitled, ‘Inevitability of Death’, Pastor T.O. Falade of the Gospel Faith Mission International, described death as a debt everyone, rich and poor, will pay to either gain eternity or hell fire. He said: “Some are living their lives as if they will be here forever, this is not possible. I want to encourage you to bear your minds towards that day when death would come to knock on your door.”
In her eulogies, the deceased’s first daughter, Mrs. Yetunde Banjo, described her father as a stickler for rules whose erudition and love for scholarship knew no bounds.