The Olomu of Omu-Aran in Kwara, Oba Abdulraheem Adeoti, on Friday described the demise of a former Acting Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Chief Jide Adebayo, as too painful to bear.
Adeoti spoke while receiving the Managing Director of NAN, Mr Buki Ponle, in his palace in Omu-Aran, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
NAN reports that Ponle was in the community on a condolence visit to the family of Adebayo, the Eesa of Omu-Aran, who died in a Lagos hospital on Nov. 5 during a brief illness.
The traditional ruler said Adebayo died at a time the community was benefitting from his wealth of experience, adding that he recorded many achievements as Eesa of Omu-Aran.
“We love him but God loved him more, that was why He called him at this time.
“We are missing him, definitely he cannot come back again.
“We struggled to save his life, we held on to him, we did what was humanly possible but it was not possible for us to save him,” Adeoti said.
The traditional ruler also said Adebayo lived an exemplary life worthy of emulation.
“We give God the glory for his life and the impact he had on his immediate community in particular and the nation in general,” he added.
Ponle, on his part, described the death of Adebayo as a great loss not only to Omu-Aran community but also to the agency.
He said the achievements of the deceased both in his career and at community level were numerous and undefined his capacity for hard work.
” Permit me to convey our sadness in palpable form the death of Jide Adebayo. His death was devastating. It was also very revealing.
” I call him Jide because we have been together for some 40 years. At work, at home, because we lived in the same place while we worked in Lagos, we were family.
” When I saw the pictures that emanated from the community when his corpse arrived, it was a pain, then my relief, relief in the sense that he was a good man.
“Wherever he went, he always touched lives, at home he touched lives, in the community, he touched lives. That’s why he is being mourned and it will take some time, if at all, before it goes,” he said.
NAN reports that the managing director was accompanied by the agency’s Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr Dele Ojo and the Director of Administration and Human Resources Management, Alhaji Abdulhadi Khaliel.
Also on the delegation were the Director,Planning, Research and Statistics, Mrs Gbemisola Erinoso-Babalola and Special Assistant to the Managing Director, Mr Mufutau Ojo.(NAN)
