JONATHAN, OBASANJO, GOVS, OTHERS MOURN AS REMI OYO DIES AT 61. Immediate past Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Felicia Oluremi Oyo, is dead. She was reported to have died on Wednesday of cancer related illness. She died 11 days to her 62nd birth day. Her widower, Vincent, said Oluremi died peacefully in her sleep in the United Kingdom. In a statement on Thursday, Vincent said his wife lived a fulfilled life. The late Oyo was a seasoned journalist who began her journalism career in 1973 in the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). She later joined NAN as a Desk Editor in 1981, and left in 1985 as a Principal Editor, the first woman to attain such a high position in the Agency. “After leaving NAN, she joined the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) as the Nigerian Bureau Chief. “She later became the international news agency’s West African Bureau Chief,” the statement said. Oyo served as Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) before she was elected as the first woman President of the Guild for two consecutive tenures from 1999 to 2003. She was appointed also as the first woman to serve as Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. She served in that capacity until the end of the President’s tenure in May 2007. In his reaction on Thursday, Obasanjo expressed sadness over Oyo’s death, describing it as painful. In his condolence letter dated October 2 to the widower, Vincent, Obasanjo said the sudden death of his former media aide has left a sour taste in his mouth. President Goodluck Jonathan similarly expressed sadness over the death of Oyo. An Aso Rock statement by Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, on Thursday said the President extended his condolences to Oyo’s widower, her children and her surviving siblings and other relatives. The President also commiserated with the NGE, management and staff of NAN “as well as colleagues, friends and protégés she garnered in her very fulfilled life”. Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, also expressed sadness at the death of Oyo. In a statement on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media, Olufunmilayo Wakama, Amosun said he was shocked by the sudden death of the veteran journalist, describing it as a big loss to journalism in particular and the media industry in general. “Dame Oyo was not only an icon of an ideal journalist but also a trailblazer in the pen profession who was well respected in the media world. “I recall those days at the Villa, when I was a Senator, I used to marvel at her energy and dedication to duty as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2003 and 2007
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 06:09:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015