Bandits Chase Ex-DTN MD, Onukaba to Death

Segun Atanda/

Former Managing Director of Daily Times, Dr Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba, was killed last night, when his car was allegedly ambushed and pursued by suspected armed robbers along the Akure-Abuja Road.

Fifty-seven-year-old Onukaba died three days to his birthday, as he was returning to Abuja from the 80th Birthday Anniversary of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the inauguration of his Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Newsmakersng learnt from reliable sources that his car somersaulted several times and landed in a ditch as he was fleeing from bandits who ambushed him on the road.

Mr Yusuf Itopa, a relation who survived the accident, said that Onukaba’s body had been deposited at the State Specialist Hospital mortuary in Akure, from where it will be brought for burial today in his hometown, Ihima, at Okehi Local Government Area of Kogi.

He said that Onukaba was knocked down by an oncoming vehicle while running into a nearby bush to escape from the gunmen.

Newsmakers also learnt that Itopa, Onukaba and the driver were the three occupants of the car that ran into a blockade mounted by armed robbers at about 6pm on Sunday at a village that is 10 minutes drive from Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Onukaba was a seasoned journalist and the biographer to Obasanjo.

He wrote the first biography of the retired General, entitled ‘In the Eyes of Time’. He also wrote the biography of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Survived by three children, two girls and a boy, the late Onukaba who was Senior Special Assistant on media to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had earlier lost his first wife, Rachael about five years ago.

He, however, remarried to Memunat in 2015.

He began his journalism career at The Guardian in 1983 and made his mark covering the Aviation beat in Lagos.

Onukaba struck friendship with Obasanjo and many Nigerian dignitaries while covering the Aviation beat.

He was the last MD of Daily Times of Nigeria under President Obasanjo before the state-run newspaper was sold to private investors.

Onukaba was born on March 9, 1960, in Oboroke-Ihima, Okehi LGA of Kogi State to the family of Mallam Shuaibu Onukaba and Hajia Aisha Onukaba.

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