Renowned veteran journalist and former editor of the defunct Sunday Sketch, Ibadan, High Chief Michael Popoola Esan Omoleye, is dead, aged 85.
The late former Editor, who was the Atake of Oye Ekiti, died on Monday in his home at Fodacis, off Ring Road, Ibadan, Oyo State after a brief illness.
An ex-student of Acquinas College, Akure, High Chief Omoleye started his journalism profession as a reporter in 1964 with the Morning/Sunday Post, a Federal Government-owned newspaper on Wharf Road, Apapa, Lagos.
He joined The Sketch Publications Ltd, Ibadan in 1969 as a correspondent.
Omoleye later became the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War correspondent before he rose to become the Editor, Sunday Sketch in 1969, where he was a renowned columnist.
He resigned from The Sketch in 1976 and, three years later, in 1979, established the Omoleye Publishing Company at Fodacis, Ibadan.
The company published a weekly newspaper, Sunday Glory, which appeared regularly on the news stands for seven years before it ceased publication.
The company was also noted for the publication of several books, including those authored by the publisher, Omoleye, himself.
The books include Awo, As I Know Him; Yoruba Traditional Religion; In The Light Of Qabalah; You Can Control Your Destiny; Quotable Sayings Of Nigerians; Leisure Time (Series 1-12); Who is Oduduwa?; Yoruba Nation Within Nigeria; A Pilgrim In Israel; Issues At Stake; and Great Tales Of The Yoruba, among others.
In the same 1979, High Chief Omoleye started The Divine Society, an organisation on Qabalah that conducted “courses in spiritual development for interested persons who want to go deeper than the surface level of present-day religions.”
The late veteran journalist was himself a devoted student of Qabalah, and the only graduate on the African Continent at a time.
Omoleye was a very close associate of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and late Hon Mr Justice Adewale Thompson, who together worked restlessly for the emancipation of the Yoruba race.
Survived by wife and children and many grandchildren, the funeral details later of the late Editor will later be announced by the family.
