Chief (Mrs) Adunni Omotayo Bankole, popular society matriarch, is dead. The wife of Ogun State popular politician, Chief Olayiwola Alani Bankole, and step mother of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Saburi Bankole, reportedly died at 6:05am on Saturday, at her mother’s residence in Maryland, Lagos State, after a protracted battle with a heart-related illness. She died, just few hours before the commencement of the wedding ceremony of her her second daughter, Mopelola Zeenat, barely three months to her 56th birthday (March 29).
During Mopelola’s Introduction ceremony, Bankole had been sick for over a month before her death came calling. So severe was the ailment that she could not be part of the preparation for the wedding ceremony. It was gathered that Bankole was rushed to the hospital last week, and had been in a coma for the last five days. Three years ago, precisely in September 2011, the affable society matriarch suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed to the Emergency Ward of the Lagos State UniversityTeaching Hospital, Ikeja (Lasuth). She was revived after being put under watch closely monitored for several hours in the Lasuth’s Intensive Care Unit. of LASUTH.
The wedding between Mopelola and her fiancé, Sharafadeen Oluwafemi Jatto, was held today at The Events Centre, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos. Mopelola, a graduate of the University of Lagos, is a senior staff at Skye Bank in Abuja, while her husband, Olufemi works at First Bank, Abuja. In attendance at the wedding was her step-son, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and his father, Chief Alani Bankole, and the bride’s grandmother. Shortly after the traditional wedding, the bride’s father, Chief Alani Bankole went round to thank guests and quietly took his leave accompanied to his car by Dimeji, who returned to the wedding hall for the reception.
Shocked by the news, some friends of the late society matriarch, were in pensive mood. Fondly called Iyalode or Chief Mrs by her teeming admirers and loved ones, Bankole, a foremost businesswoman with a chain of stores, such as Sublime Group, formerly on Opebi Street, and later, Ogba Retail market, Ikeja, Lagos, hailed from Owu, Ogun State. She married a First Republic politician, Chief Alani Bankole, the Oluwo Iporo and Asipa of Egbaland and the father of Dimeji Bankole. She is blessed with four children – Toyin, Mopelola, Layiwola Jnr and Adesola, and a grandson, Sultan. The first of her parents’ children, Bankole is survived by her 79-year old mother and many siblings.
