Barrister Niyi Ijalaye

Barrister Niyi Ijalaye, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Ogun State, is dead.

It was reliably gathered that the Ogun REC slumped and died on Monday evening after a meeting of RECs at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

A source at the Ogun State INEC headquarters, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that Barrister Ijalaye had returned to his hotel room after the meeting before the incident happened.

The source further revealed that the Ondo-born administrator, who was lively throughout the commission’s meeting, retired to a hotel in the Federal Capital Territory, where the incident happened.

The meeting, according to the remarks of the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, which was posted on the verified timeline of the Commission on Facebook, focused on two off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, and seven vacant positions in the National and State Assemblies.

During the meeting, Barrister Ijalaye dressed in blue striped Kaftan with a red cap, was seen in one of the pictures posted by the Commission on its timeline.

Barrister Ijalaye was posted to Ogun State in March 2022, following the transfer of Olusegun Agbaje to Lagos State.