Akin Omoboriowo

Who was Akin Omoboriowo?

Akinwole Michael Omoboriowo was a Nigerian lawyer and politician who was Deputy Governor of Ondo State, later switching parties and contested for the governorship election of 1983 in Ondo State during the Nigerian Second Republic. He was initially declared the winner but was disputed and later reversed by a court of appeal before he could take office.

Omoboriowo was elected Deputy Governor on the Unity Party of Nigeria platform, running with Michael Adekunle Ajasin, who became governor. He claimed that he should have been UPN candidate for governor, since he had won more votes that Ajasin in the primaries, but that the UPN leaders had rigged the results. During his period as deputy governor, he fell out with Governor Ajasin, who refused to swear him into power as acting Governor when Ajasin was away from the state.

Omoboriowo switched to the National Party of Nigeria and ran against his old boss in the 1983 elections. This came on the heels of the latter's refusal to step aside from the gubernatorial race as previously allegedly agreed between Omoboriowo and Ajasin. Omoboriowo and certain other stalwarts of the party including Chief S.A. Akerele against popular sentiment, left for the ruling NPN under which he ran for the guber seat. When the federal Electoral Commission declared Omoboriowo the winner on 16 August 1983, the announcement sparked deadly riots. The riots were reportedly the most violent in the history of post-independence Yoruba-land second only to the "Wet è" riots. The riots, particularly aimed at NPN stalwarts and sympathisers claimed lives and properties of prominent individuals. Chiefs Omoboriowo and Akerele were spared though Akerele's house was razed to the ground by irate rioters. In the same riots, Chief Olaiya Fagbamigbe of Fagbemigbe publishers was killed as well as Hon. Kunle Agunbiade. An unverified version of events states that Agunbiade was beheaded and his head was taken on a plate to certain UPN leaders.