October 22, (THEWILL) – Six years after the death of his son, Gbemiga, more popularly known as DJ Olu, the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has decided to immortalise him. He has instituted a N55 million scholarship award scheme for 550 indigent students in the Remo Federal Constituency of the state in his late son’s honour.
Aptly named Gbemiga Abiodun Education Scholarship, besides the fact that the educational scholarship is in continuation of the selfless philanthropic acts the late disc jockey exhibited, the governor also chose to use education to immortalise him as he decried the low enrollment of girls in male-dominated trades in technical colleges and vocational centres compared to boys and also lamented that despite the free education policy of his administration, many basic school graduates are hindered from proceeding beyond junior or secondary schools and acquiring tertiary education.
While inaugurating the scheme, Governor Abiodun called on the beneficiaries of his memorial foundation to make the best of the scheme to better their lots, saying it was the best way his family would keep the memory of the deceased alive.
Abiodun said that the scheme would ensure that brilliant students and those whose parents could not afford to educate them, have access to quality education. According to him, the number of beneficiaries will increase to 1,000 in the next 12 months, which will be the minimum at any given time.
He also promised that the scholarship would be extended to other federal constituencies in the state for maximum spread and that selection of beneficiaries will be determined by the State Ministry of Education Science and Technology, using the Cumulative Promotion Examination Result obtainable from the OGSERA platform while the beneficiaries for tertiary institutions were recommended by their respective institutions.
Gbemiga died on October 7, 2017. Himself and his friend, Chime Ameachi, were found lifeless in a BMW car parked at an underground garage of an apartment building in Banana Island, Ikoyi Lagos. During a search and examination on the car in which their lifeless body was found, the then Lagos State Acting Commissioner of Police, Edgar Imohimi, reportedly recovered substances suspected to be drugs from the car but the family immediately debunked the rumour stating that the cause of their son’s death was not in any way drug related.
