UNILAG professor Duro Ajeyalemi dies of coronavirus

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has again lost another prominent professor, Duro Ajeyalemi, to the dreaded COVID-19.

It was gathered that Professor Ajeyalemi died on Wednesday morning from Coronavirus at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) isolation centre.

The late Professor of Education retired at the age of 70 from the UNILAG November 2020.

He was a former dean of the university’s Faculty of Education and also the pioneer Registrar of the Joint Universities Preliminary Examination Board (JUPEB).

Deputy Vice-Chancelor in charge of development services at UNILAG, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, confirmed Ajeyalemi’s death to our reporter on phone.

He said the news of his death came as a shock to the university.

On whether he died from COVID-19, she said, “I understand that the great scholar died of COVID-19 but I do not have a confirmation of that.”

The University had on Sunday lost its former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe to death at the age of 72.

Sources close to the deceased confirmed that he died from COVID-19 complications.

Ibidapo-Obe was appointed the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG in 2000, succeeding Jelili Adebisi Omotola.

He was later succeeded by Tolu Olukayode Odugbemi in 2007 after completing his tenure.

Born on July 5, 1949 in Ile Ife, Osun State, he attended Lagos Street African Church Primary School, Ebute-Metta (1955–1961) and Obokun High School/Ilesa Grammar School (1962–1966).

He later attended Igbobi College, Yaba, (1966–1968) Lagos state, Nigeria, for his secondary education.

He received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Lagos.

The late Ibidapo-Obe served as a Visiting Research Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA (1980–1981).

In 2007, he was a Visiting Research Professor at Texas Southern University in Houston, USA among others.