FAMILY RELEASES CHIEF ‘TAYO AKPATA’ S FUNERAL ARRANGEMENT

Chief Tayo Akpata

The remains of elder-statesman, astute administrator and nationalist, Chief ‘Tayo Akpata C.O.N will be committed to mother earth on Friday November 21, 2014 in Benin City, Edo State.
The late Ima of Benin passed on peacefully in his Ikoyi home on Monday October 13, 2014.
According to a press statement released by the family over the weekend, the funeral arrangements will commence on Friday November 14th with a Memorial Dinner and Concert at 5pm to celebrate Chief Tayo Akpata’s raison d’etre (his life and times.) The screening of a documentary film titled ‘A sage goes home’ will also hold the same evening at the Landmark Village in Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos.
On Thursday November 20, 2014, a commendation service will hold at Ikoyi Baptist Church at 8am, after which the body leaves for Benin.
On Friday, November 21, 2014, the Funeral Service will commence at 9am at the Central Baptist Church, Kings Square, Benin City. A reception follows immediately at Edo Hotel in G.R.A Benin City.
The late Chief Akpata was a proud alumnus of Edo College, Benin City and University of Hull, United Kingdom.
He will be remembered as a versatile student activist in the 1950’s. His foray in politics started as the Vice-President of the West African Students Union (WASU). He was active and dedicated to the clamour for Nigeria’s Independence. He was a founding member of the Nigerian Youth Congress.
He served as Deputy Registrar of the University of Ibadan, during which time he initiated and organised both the Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) Games and the West African Inter University Games.
A one-time Commissioner for Education in the old Bendel State, during this time he piloted the University Mid-West Institute of Technology to the full status of a University and was later re-designated the University of Benin in 1972.
Chief Akpata was the first Chairman of the Nigerian Youths Service Corp, Mid-Western State. He was also a one-time Chairman, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); Director of NNPC and Chairman, Pipeline and Products Marketing Company PPMC, a subsidiary of NNPC. He was also a Trustee and Executive Secretary of the Defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (P.T.F)
His Tayo Akpata Foundation is involved in financial support for deprived Nigerians at secondary and tertiary levels.
Until his death, he was a proud member of Metropolitan Club, Nigerian Conservation Foundation and Yoruba Tennis Club.