THE Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, Adegboyega Arulogun, is dead.
His death, which has been confirmed by his family, occurred at exactly 7:04 a.m on Thursday. He was 84-year-old.
His eldest son, Toye Arulogun, Commissioner for Information and Culture in Oyo State, confirmed the respected broadcaster’s death and disclosed that he would be buried at 4.00pm today in line with Islamic rites.
Arulogun has been a member of the Board of the ICIR since inception but became its chairman in 2017.
The Executive director of the ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, said that Arulogun’s death came as a rude shock as he showed no sign of illness a few days ago.
“Although Alhaji was 84, he had the energy of a 60-year-old, was still mentally sound and contributed greatly to what the ICIR is today. It is shocking. He will be greatly missed,” Aiyetan said.
He also extolled the virtues of the broadcaster who was a devout Muslim but married a Catholic and preached religious tolerance and love until his death.
A three-time Commissioner in the old Oyo State, Pa Arulogun was born on October 1, 1934, in Ibadan. He was educated at Baptist Boy’s High School, Oyo, School of Agriculture, Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Overseas Film and TV Center, London, Sender Freis Berlin (West Germany) and the University of Lagos.
The late Arulogun began his Television career at WNTV-WNBS Ibadan. He later moved to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where he was placed in charge of Production Services from 1977 to 1987. He was appointed General Manager of NTA Channels 5 and 10 in Lagos in 1987, and later that same year, he moved to NTA Ikeja, Channel 7.
In 1988, he was appointed Commissioner for Information and Culture of Oyo State, and he served in the state government till January 1992, where he headed several ministries including Information, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Works and Transport.
Pa Arulogun returned to the NTA as the Assistant Director, Marketing. He was the Chairman of the Advertising Award Committee of NTA for 1992 and 1993 and also represented the station on the APCON (Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria) Advertising Standards Panel between 1992 and 1994. He retired in 1994.
Some of Pa Arulogun’s successful productions on the NTA Network service include: ‘Ogunde: Man Of The Theatre’, ‘5 Days in Badagry’, ‘Dance for Harvest’, ‘FESTAC 77’, ‘Born to Live’, among others.
In the course of his professional career, Pa Arulogun had visited several countries of the world including Republic of Benin, Ghana, Egypt, Britain, Germany, United States of America (USA), Swedeen, Finland, Korea, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
He is survived by five children and his wife.