TheCable

Isiaka Adeleke, senator representing Osun west, is dead.

Adeleke reportedly died on Sunday morning at Biket Hospital in Osogbo, after suffering a heart attack.

His colleague at the senate, Shehu Sani, described the late Adeleke as a “principled and responsible gentleman”.

“Senator Isiaka Adeleke is a calm, principled and responsible gentleman. He represented his people with maturity, dignity and distinction. Adieu,” the senator representing Kaduna central wrote on Facebook.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) also confirmed the death on its Twitter handle: @APCNigeria.

https://twitter.com/APCNigeria/status/856104019324002304

The three-term senator was a civilian governor of the state under the short-lived democratic dispensation during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida.

His emergence as the governor then, fresh from the United States, was still the stuff of a  political thrillers as he earned the nickname, SERUBAWON, after he beat  older political gladiators in the primaries of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to clinch the ticket.

He was then just 37 years old.

Until his death, he was planning to run for the governorship election in the state in 2018.

He was born as Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke  in Enugu on 15 January 1955 to the family of Ayoola Adeleke, a senator and Esther Adeleke.

He started his primary education at Christ Church School, Enugu before moving to Ibadan. He had his secondary  education at Ogbomoso Grammar School and later went to the United States for his university education.

He was chairman, Governing Council, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Pro-Chancellor And Chairman, governing council, University of Calabar.