Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State has been thrown into mourning as a senior Professor, Jimoh Olanipekun, was declared dead after falling ill during a departmental meeting.
A statement issued by the University’s Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olarewaju, said that the professor fell ill during a meeting on Wednesday at the department.
According to him, during a departmental meeting this morning (Wednesday, 5th day of March 2025), it was noticed by his colleagues that he was breathing “abnormally” and was immediately rushed to the University Health and Medical Centre.
Upon prompt medical examination by the team of doctors on duty, he was referred to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), also in Ile-Ife, where he was pronounced dead.
Vice Chancellor of OAU, Professor Adebayo Bamire, who led other members of his management team to the widow and children on a condolence visit, expressed “shock and disbelief that such a brilliant scholar could die so suddenly in the line of duty.”
He charged the family to take solace in the fact that the deceased lived a fulfilled life of positive impact on those who were fortunate to come across him, counselling that as Christians, ” we should know that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away as He pleases”.
Bamire, therefore, prayed that God should grant the immediate family, the Department of Philosophy, the Faculty of Arts and the entire university community the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
