It has emerged that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade’s journey to the world beyond started last week Thursday when he slumped in his palace.
Impeccable source told OrijoReporter that the octogenarian who died at the of 85 was rushed to Ibadan airport from where he was flown to Lagos in an air ambulance en route to England for treatment.
It was said that he remained unstable and finally succumbed to death on Tuesday.
Born on 1 January 1930, and became Ooni in 1980, Oba Sijuwade had worked with the Nigerian
Tribune before attending Northampton College in the UK to study business management. By the age of 30, he was a manager in Leventis, a Greek-Nigerian conglomerate. In 1963 he became Sales Director of the state-owned National Motor in Lagos. After spotting a business opportunity during a 1964 visit to the old Soviet Union, he formed a company to distribute Soviet-built vehicles and equipment in Nigeria, which became the nucleus of a widespread business empire.
