…as Judge Ajibola praises monarch’s virtues
SAHEED AWEDA
The Founder and Proprietor of Crescent University, Abeokuta, His Excellency Judge Bola AbdulJabbar Ajibola, SAN, KBE, LL.D, D.Litt, CFR and the entire university community have mourned the passing of the institution’s Chancellor and the late Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty, Oba (Dr.) Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, which occurred on Friday 22 April 2022.
In a statement made in Abeokuta, Judge Ajibola praised the exemplary life of the late Alaafin and the courage, intellectual depth and wisdom with which he ruled as Oyo’s longest reigning monarch in history – a rule of more than five decades that saw the Alaafin not just as a leading monarch in Yoruba land, but also as one of the leading monarchs the nation relied upon for leadership and wise counsel.
Judge Ajibola recalled some of his earliest relationship with the Alaafin, which started when the then-to-be Alaafin was selected to occupy the throne, after the demise of Oba Bello Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II. Judge Bola Ajibola was the one sent to Lagos, where the late Alaafin was working as an insurance executive, to invite him to where the news of his selection was broken to him.
He commended the service of the Alaafin as Chancellor of Crescent University, a position which he occupied from the year 2015 till his passage.
He noted that his tenure as Chancellor witnessed a phenomenal growth in the profile and remarkable achievements recorded in the history of the University.
While commiserating with the Royal Family, the people of Oyo, the Yoruba and Nigerians in general over the loss of “the great monarch”, Judge Ajibola prayed for the repose of the late Oba Lamidi Adeyemi’s soul, adding that his legacies of good leadership would remain a reference point in history.