Adebayo was elected as a senator in 1979 on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
By Kehinde Okeowo
Former governor of Kwara State and one time federal lawmaker, Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo has passed on.
According to a family source who spoke to TheCable, he died in Abuja on Wednesday morning at the age of 84.
Adebayo was elected as a senator on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in 1979.
He later served as governor of Kwara State in 1983, before he was appointed Minister of Communications in 2003.
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Adebayo was a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which played a key role in the pro-democracy movement to restore the mandate given to MKO Abiola in the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
In 1993, he was offered a ministerial position in the Sani Abacha junta but declined.
On May 31, 1995, a bomb exploded in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.
Following the incident, the police arrested and interrogated Adebayo along with other NADECO members.
In 1996, he went into brief exile in Canada after fleeing the country, as the military junta was reportedly closing in on him for a second time.
