AMACOG’92 classmates, family mourn Dotun Oladipo at emotional tribute night

by · The Eagle Online

Two weeks after the sudden death of veteran journalist Dotun Oladipo, his classmates from the Association of Mass Communication Graduates, Ogun State Polytechnic, Class of 1992 (AMACOG’92), gathered on a Zoom call to pay tribute to a man many of them described not just as a colleague, but as family.

The virtual night of tribute was convened by the AMACOG’92 executive committee ahead of Friday’s service of songs, where time for personal reflection was expected to be limited.

AMACOG’92 chairman Adekunle Adeshina, who also serves as Director of Public Affairs at the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, opened the session by welcoming members and Oladipo’s widow and children, who joined to listen as classmates recounted what Dotun had meant to them.

Funso Oyelowo led the gathering in an opening prayer, and the association’s secretary, Olusiji Oyelusi, managed proceedings through the night.

Adeshina told members that Oladipo had been the only person to hold two positions on the AMACOG executive committee at once, serving simultaneously as welfare officer and chief whip, roles he said Oladipo carried out with distinction. It was in recognition of that role, Adeshina said, that the executive had organised the night specifically for classmates to speak.

One of the earliest tributes set the tone for the evening, with a classmate remembering Oladipo as someone who had “built bridges for others to cross” since their school days, calling him useful “to his family, to his peers, to the journalistic profession, and to humanity as a whole.”

Also Read:

Oyelowo followed with some of the night’s most personal recollections, recalling how Oladipo had connected her to a lawyer and the police after her housekeeper’s husband was killed in a motorcycle accident, and how he had quietly supported her during her time as president of her secondary school’s alumni association. She remembered spotting him alone at her father’s burial years earlier, a gesture that had remained with her even up till now.

Dr Bukky Daramola described Oladipo as a journalist who understood the responsibility that came with having a public voice, using it, she said, “to inform, educate, and positively influence society,” while remaining humble and approachable to those who knew him personally.

Segun Adebowale recalled Oladipo’s willingness to help him secure media guests for a programme at Super Screen, and a chance meeting jogging in their shared estate where Oladipo’s wife greeted him before he recognised her.

 Bola Apampa, a classmate who did not go into journalism but remained close through the association, remembered a planned overnight stay at Oladipo’s home that fell through because of Lagos traffic, and how he had called repeatedly to make sure she was comfortable elsewhere, insisting he would come and pick her up himself.

Several speakers described Oladipo as a dependable presence in difficult moments. One recalled him quietly resolving a family matter as recently as April, months before his death.

Abimbola Oyetunde, General Manager of Bronze FM in Benin City, said she learned of his death through a mutual friend, the publisher of The Punch newspaper, and called him an “all-rounder” that nobody could speak ill of. She recounted their final meeting, at a Guild of Editors lecture, where the two had lingered talking for over an hour, neither wanting to leave, a memory, she said, that in hindsight felt like a goodbye neither of them recognised at the time.

Abdur-Rahman Balogun, a journalist and Director of Media and Public Relations at the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, gave one of the evening’s most detailed tributes, recalling that he had sent Oladipo a press statement at 1:22 p.m. on the day he died, and that Oladipo had acknowledged it immediately, as he always did, only hours before news of his death broke on the AMACOG platform.

Balogun credited Oladipo directly with facilitating his membership of the Nigeria Guild of Editors and encouraging him to join the International Press Institute, saying Oladipo had personally bought and filled out his registration form. He also described Oladipo once refusing to let him make his own way to a hotel in Abuja after their driver left without him, insisting on dropping him off personally.

Balogun, who is Muslim, said Oladipo, a Christian, never let their differing faiths come between them.

Tolu Sonaike offered a scripture-grounded reflection, describing Oladipo as “the heart of the party” who could not remain in a room where there was discord, and drew on the Book of Isaiah to frame his passing as the rest of a righteous man.

Johnson Ayantunji recalled a phone call from Oladipo as recently as March, during the burial of a fellow member’s wife, about securing a plot at a church memorial garden, the kind of practical help, he said, that had become typical of him.

Folayan Omotayo remembered Oladipo as the classmate who got their set into the habit of taking pictures together in school, and who kept the AMACOG platform lively with humour well into recent years.

Other classmates described the disbelief that swept through the group when news of his death broke on a public holiday, with several saying they initially assumed it was a prank given how unshakeable Oladipo had always seemed.

One member, speaking largely in Yoruba, credited him with a significant share of the success of the alumni body during his own tenure as its president. A member who joined the call from the United States said that although she had not seen Oladipo in person since their college days, his death affected her as though she saw him regularly, pointing to messages in which he had affectionately called her “sister” over the years.

Tony Obasaki, a classmate from a different arm of their year group who grew closer to Oladipo and his wife after graduation, called him “a gentle giant” who found it difficult to say no to anyone who needed help, adding that Oladipo’s wife was so embedded in the group that “nobody would know she wasn’t one of us.”

Dr Hamzat, speaking from the diaspora, described Oladipo personally coordinating help with a property dispute in Ikorodu on his behalf and travelling there more than once, even using his own money afterward to buy gifts for the contact who had helped resolve it.

He admitted that when news of the death first appeared on the AMACOG platform, he assumed it was a prank, and it took the group’s president confirming it directly for the reality to set in.

Toward the end of the night, a family representative, Rev. Banji Oladipo, thanked AMACOG’92 on behalf of the family for organising the tribute, saying it reflected how completely the group had embraced them as family over the years.

Closing the session, Adeshina reminded members of Thursday’s service of songs and burial, and urged classmates to turn out in large numbers to pay their last respects, noting that commemorative T-shirts had been made available through the secretary and treasurer.

Balogun closed the night with a prayer, largely in Yoruba, for the repose of Oladipo’s soul and for strength for his widow and children.

Oladipo, the founder and managing editor of The Eagle Online and chief executive of Premium Eagle Media Limited, died on August 25, 2026, in Lagos, at the age of 56.

[wpadcenter_ad id='745970' align='none']

Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp