The Oyo State Government has commenced activities to further immortalise the first Military Governor of the Western region, late Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, with the construction of a memorial park and garden in the Lalupon area of the State.
This is a follow up to the promises that the Senator Abiola Ajimobi-led government made at the just concluded 50th Adekunle Fajuyi Memorial Lecture and 90th Post-humus birthday organised by various groups in Ibadan.
The Commissioner for Information, Youth and Tourism, Toye Arulogun, made this known on Monday, adding that the park is a fulfillment of the government’s promise to further immortalise the late Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, by facilitating the construction of a monument and park in his honour at the very spot where he was killed in Lalupon.
It would be recalled that representatives of the state government had, during a visit to the site where the late former Governor of Western Region and the late former Head of State, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi were assassinated during the bloody coup of July 1966, in the company of the traditional rulers of Lalupon, had listed the virtues of the late administrator.
Arulogun, who led the delegation had reiterated that the gesture became imperative to further celebrate the gallantry and selfless service the former military administrator displayed at the face of death, which projected the virtues of honour, bravery and loyalty.
He explained further that paying the supreme price was a mean feat and rarity, noting that although a previous administration in the state had immortalised the late Governor of the Western region by naming a road after him, the opportunity presented by the availability of the spot where he and his supreme commander were killed fifty years after, is not just a divine but golden one that the present administration will not allow to slip by.
“The Oyo State Government has therefore taken the onus upon itself to further honor the worthy patriot to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of his death,” he said.
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