A former Commissioner for Information in Ondo State, Ranti Akerele, is dead.
Akerele, 53, who was appointed a commissioner during the first term of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, was said to have died in his sleep on Tuesday morning.
The former commissioner was said to be hale and hearty on Monday evening before retiring to his bedroom after the days work.
According to a source, Akerele was said to have taken his wife, Lucy, who was sick to the hospital for treatment and had to return home while the sick woman was placed on admission.
The source said the former commissioner came home with his driver and one of his domestic staff after the wife was admitted at the hospital around 9 p.m. and instructed the domestic staff to put off the generating set around midnight.
He said the security man was, however, surprised not to see the commissioner outside around 9 a.m. which he said was unusual but after knocking on the door severally with no response, decided to peep through the window and found the former commissioner in bed but without response.
He said: “We had to break the door and found his lifeless body on the bed. He was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead”
Reacting to the death on behalf of the state government, Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, described it as sad, sudden and shocking as the late Akerele was full of life with no sign of sickness till Monday night when he retired to sleep.
Akinmade, who described Akerele as a hardworking man who left when the state needed his contribution towards the development of the state, urged the people “to take solace in the fact that while alive, he served the state in different capacities and was able to contribute his quota to the development of the state”
Akinmade, however, condoled with the wife, children and family of the late commissioner and prayed to God to grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.
