Ikole-Ekiti honours Olatawura’s family

Dapo Falade, Ado-Ekiti - 15.01.2008

ANOTHER feather was added to the cap of the famous family of the late Chief Ezekiel Olatawura on Monday in Ikole-Ekiti as three of his children were conferred with different awards by a socio-cultural organisation, Egbe Itesiwaju Omo Ilu Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

The foremost Ikole-Ekiti group, as part of the activities marking its 60th anniversary, honoured Justice Olajide Olatawura, a retired justice of the Supreme Court; Professor Emeritus Oludare Olatawura, a professor of psychiatry and former Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH) and Mr. Bisi Olatawura, a renown chartered accountant and also a director of the African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc., publishers of the Tribune titles, along with eight other personalities from the town.

Honoured along with the Olatawuras were the late Mrs. Abigail Oyewole, the first trained nurse from Ikole-Ekiti; Justice S. A. Ajayi, a retired High Court judge; the late Alhaji Junaid Ogunlayi, a former commissioner in old Ondo State and Justice Oyebisi Omoleye, the first female Chief Judge in Ekiti State.

Others included Professor Olanrewaju Filani, a professor of Geography at the University of Ibadan, Mr. Ishola Filani, a lawyer and former Chairman of Wema Bank; Chief Fola Omolayo, Managing Director, The Kitchen, Lagos and Chief Bunmi Ogunleye, a politician and philantrophist.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune after the honour, Justice Olatawura, the first judge from Ikole-Ekiti, described the awards given him and his two brothers as unique, adding that it was a reflection of the well-grounded educational background of his family.