Lagos ex-council boss slumps, dies

A former Executive Secretary of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and Past President of Rotary Club of Ewu Tuntun, District 9110, Barr. Tajudeen Jaiye Alabi, yesterday slumped and died at an eatery in Mushin area of Lagos State. Suspected to have experienced heart attack, he was confirmed dead at the Isolo General Hospital, where he was immediately rushed to.

The incident came as a rude shock to his family, friends and associates, who trooped in their large numbers to his residence at Ejigbo, where he was immediately buried according to Muslim rites.

According to brother of the deceased, Abiodun Sadiq Alabi, he was in good spirits and showed no sign of ill health yesterday morning when he set out for the day’s activity after dropping off his son in his school. “I am still in shock. He had hardly taken a spoonful of the meal he ordered when he started shouting ‘my head, my head’ and then slumped on his seat. In fact, the son he dropped off returned from school to meet a crowd of sympathisers at home and couldn’t believe that his father is no more.”

Among the callers at his burial was the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Chief Henry Ajomale; Commissioner for Home Affairs, Lagos State, Dr. Abdul-Hakeem Abdul-Lateef; chairman of Ejigbo LCDA, Monsuru Obe; president, Rotary Club of Ewutuntun, Victor Olutade Olowo; and former House of Representatives member, Hakeem Abiodun Muniru.

Commissioner for Information and former chairman of Ejigbo LCDA, Kehinde Bamigbetan, in a statement said he received with the news of Alabi, who succeed him in office at Ejigbo with a heavy heart. “My heart and prayers remain with the Alabi family and the people of Ejigbo LCDA in this time of grief,” he wrote.

The deceased, a legal practitioner, grassroots politician and committed humanitarian, would be remembered for offering free legal service to two journalists attacked by thugs at the secretariat of Sagamu Local Government Area in Ogun State, in November 2012. The journalists, Segun Olatunji of Punch Newspaper and Olayinka Olukoya of Nigerian Tribune, were at the council secretariat to cover an incident when they were attacked.