PA ADESANYA, YORUBA LEADER, DIES AT 85

Pa Abraham Adesanya

Leader of the Yoruba and Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Egbe Afenifere Senator Abraham Adesanya, passed on at his Apapa residence in Lagos on Sunday while taking his breakfast. He was aged 85.

 

A distinguished lawyer, he was part of the legal team that took up the election petition of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo following the 1979 presidential election.

 

In 1959, Pa Adesanya, an Awoist became a member of the Western House of Assembly where he represented the Ijebu-Igbo constituency as a member of the Action Group, then the party of choice in his part of Nigeria. In the Second Republic, he was elected a senator on the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

 

During the brutal reign of General Sanni Abacha as head of State, Pa Adesanya was deputy leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), that group that fought against Abacha’s tyrannical rule. That, however, earned him Abacha’s ire. On Tuesday, January 14, 1997, Pa Adesanya was attacked by some members of the military dictator’s notorious killer gang who rained hot bullets at him. His Mercedes Benz car was thoroughly vandalized in the incident. He escaped unhurt alongside his driver.

 

He is survived by his wife, 83-year old Mrs Rosannah Arinola Adesanya and four children, including, Hon Adebayo Adesanya, Mr Segun Adesanya, Mrs Modupe Adelaja, a former minister of state for defence, and Mr Femi Adesanya.