Claim: A social media post recently claimed that past Oyo State Governors died at 71.
The claim is largely incorrect as only two of the five, Chief Bola Ige and Adebayo Alao-Akala were 71-year-old when they died.
Full Story
A social media post, which went viral on Friday, 14th January 2022, claimed that five past governors of Oyo State died at the age of 71 years.
The post, which has gone viral and has been shared multiple times on WhatsApp, especially, listed former Governors of Oyo State, Bola Ige, Kolapo Ishola, Lamidi (Lam) Adesina, Abiola Ajimobi and Adebayo Alao-Akala to have died at 71.
The post had an accompanying message that reads, ‘What can we say about this?’ suggesting that this occurrence might be a coincidence or jinx.
The post has continued to be circulated on social media and it has elicited rife speculations and cross postings on many groups on WhatsApp, so it was necessary to verify these claims and clear the air.
Verification
Using news stories and commentaries from credible platforms, this writer opted to verify if the claim is true or false.
Chief Bola Ige, who was governor of the old Oyo State from 1979 to 1983, was shot dead in his Ibadan, Oyo State capital, residence on December 23, 2001. Bola Ige was born in Esa Oke, Osun State on September 13, 1930. He was aged 71 at the time of his death.
Checks showed that Chief Kolapo Ishola died in 2011 at the age of 77. Kolapo Ishola was Oyo State governor between 1991 and 1993.
Lamidi Adesina was governor of Oyo State from 1999 to 2003. Alhaji Lamidi Adesina died in 2012 at the age of 73. Adesina, who died at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos after a protracted illness, would have celebrated his 74th birthday if he had been alive in January 2013.
Senator Abiola Ajimobi was born on 16 December 1949 to the Ajimobi of Ibadan at Oja-Oba, Ibadan. And he was governor from 2011 to 2019.
Ajimobi died on 25 June 2020 at a private hospital in Lagos after spending weeks in intensive care for coronavirus complications. He was 70.
Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala was governor from 2007 to 2011. Alao-Akala died in his Ogbomoso residence on Wednesday, 12 January 2022, at the age of 71. He was born on June 3, 1950, at Ogbomoso in Ogbomoso North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
From the foregoing revelations, it is evident that Chief Bola Ige was 71 when he was assassinated in December 2001, Kolapo Ishola was 77 when he died in 2011 and Alhaji Lam Adesina was 73 when he died in 2012.
Also, Abiola Ajimobi was 70 years and six months when he died in June 2020, and Alao-Akala was 71 when he died on Wednesday 12 January 2022.
Conclusion
The claim that past Oyo State governors died at the age of 71 is largely incorrect, as only Bola Ige and Alao-Akala were 71 at the time of their death.
