Otunba Adekunle Ojora, the Otunba of Lagos and Lisa of Ife, is dead.
He passed on in the early hours of today at the age of 93, marking the end of a long life defined by dignity, tradition, and quiet influence within Nigeria’s social and cultural elite.
Announcing his passing, the Ojora family said they received the news “with total submission to the will of Almighty Allah (SWT),” describing his death as a return to his Creator.
“Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un,” the family said in a terse statement signed by Mrs. Toyin Ojora-Saraki adding, “We say Alhamdulillahi for a life well lived, and we comply with Allah’s words that: ‘Surely, to Allah we belong and to Him we will all return.”
The wife of former Senate President Bukola Saraki spoke on behalf of the entire family.
A revered patriarch, Otunba Ojora held significant traditional titles, serving as the Otunba of Lagos and the Lisa of Ife, positions that placed him at the heart of Yoruba traditional institutions linking Lagos and Ile-Ife.
He was widely regarded as a man of calm authority whose influence was exercised more through counsel and personal example than public display.
The social pillar will be buried today in Lagos in accordance with Islamic rites.
Otunba Ojora is survived by his wife, Erelu Ojolape Ojora, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
The family urged members of the public to remember him in their prayers, asking Allah “to grant His servant, who has lived a dignified life, reprieve in the grave and a place in Aljannah Firdaus.”
