Atoye had led a campaign for electoral reforms in Nigeria, and his contributions to the recent changes to electoral guidelines by the Nigerian parliament were widely acknowledged.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Rights activist and executive director of the Adopt-A-Goal Initiative, Ariyo-Dare Atoye, has died of lung cancer at the age of 41.
The trained journalist, who spent years covering national affairs for the News Agency of Nigeria, died on Thursday, October 27, 2022, in a private hospital in Abuja.
He was diagnosed with the disease early this month in its fourth stage.
Atoye attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and later capped it with a Master of Science degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
After a brief foray into politics under the PDP administration of Goodluck Jonathan, he returned to activism and co-founded the Centre for Civil Liberty which he monitored out of Abuja.
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Under the centre and in partnership with several other civil rights groups and activists that included Deji Adeyanju and Omoyele Sowore, Mr Atoye sought stringent accountability from the Buhari regime, which quickly became a worrisome authority for many rights activists in Nigeria and beyond following its inauguration in May 2015.
Atoye had led a campaign for electoral reforms in Nigeria, and his contributions to the recent changes to electoral guidelines by the Nigerian parliament were widely acknowledged.
Atoye was a frontline human rights crusader who had stood against oppression, injustice and any force and action that sought to undermine civic and media spaces.
His death has thrown the civil society organisation in Nigeria into mourning.