Election violence: Profile of Reps Member, Olatoye ‘Sugar’, shot dead yesterday

BY DAMOLA EMMANUEL

In the count down to the 2019 general elections, two things were uppermost in the mind of Hon. Temitope Olatoye, who represented the Lagelu/Akinyele Federal Constituency in Nigeria’s House of Representatives.

According to people close to him,  Olatoye, who was the Chairman, House Committee on Urban Development and Regional Planning had, first and foremost, hoped to receive a memorable birthday gift of a senate seat from his constituents in Oyo Central Senatorial District, in the  February 23, 2019 National Assembly election.

That was not to be. Olatoye, who ran on the platform of the Action Democratic Party, ADP, and would have turned 46 this year, lost the election. But a good party man, they say he was, he still worked his fingers to the bones to have an impressive showing in Saturday’s governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

Sadly, Election Day became Death Day for the youthful businessman-turned-politician via a bullet to the head from some yet-to-be-identified gunmen in Ibadan after Saturday’s elections.

According to reports, he was rushed to the Accident and Emergency Centre of the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, where he was confirmed dead.

Toye Akinrinlola, the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, who confirmed the sad event to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said Olatoye died in UCH Intensive Care Unit (ICU) from gunshot injury.

Since then, Olatoye’s family has been thrown into deep mourning.

Born in 1973, Olatoye began his political career as a Supervisory Councillor in Odeda Local Government. Not too long after, ‘Sugar’, who for many years was the youth leader of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun Central Senatorial District, got appointed as a Special Adviser to then Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

In 2007, he contested for the Chairmanship of Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State on the platform of the PDP, and became the PDP National delegate of Oyo State the following year.

‘Sugar’ was elected into the Oyo State House of Assembly in 2011 on the ticket of Accord Party, and in 2015, he was elected into the House of Representatives to represent Lagelu/Akinyele on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC. In 2018, he decamped to Action Democratic Party where he ran for senate where he would have represented the Oyo Central Senatorial District. But he lost to the APC’s candidate Teslim Folarin.

The young Temitope had his primary school education at St Michael Primary School, Yemetu and I.M.G Primary School, Beyerunka, Alafara Oje both in Ibadan. For his secondary education, the late lawmaker attended Ikolaba Grammar School, Ikolaba, St Luke’s College, Molete, and Alugbo Comprehensive High School, Egbeda, all in Ibadan.

For his tertiary education, Olatoye attended Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he obtained his National Certificate of Education. He got his Bachelor and Master’s Degrees at the University of Ibadan.

The late Olatoye was born in Efungade-Onigbodogi compound in Alafara Oje in Ibadan, North East Local Government Area of Oyo State while his ancestral villages are Onigbodogi and Alape both in Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State.