Gbenga Toyosi Olawepo

Who is Gbenga Toyosi Olawepo?

Gbenga Toyosi Olawepo is a Nigerian human rights activist and businessman.

The name Olawepo first made the headlines when as an anti-apartheid activist, he and three other students’ leaders of the University of Lagos were clamped into the over-crowded Nigeria Police cell in April 1989 after an anti apartheid protest. The military regime that was growing increasingly repressive and intolerant of freedom of expression in Nigeria then ordered the detention of the student activist. The Education Editor of Guardian Express – Joe Idika- published an exclusive report on the plight of the quartet -Olawepo, Oyerinde, Akhaine and Ewebiyi- in what was an expose on the deplorable condition under which detainees are held in the Nigerian Police facilities. The report was also a story of the extraordinary courage of the quartet displayed during the visit of Mrs.Thatcher over her government’s pro-apartheid policy, which the student-labour protest was all about.