“She recorded great achievements and left bold footprints , took NAN from ground zero to its peak as the Chief Executive Officer for two consecutive terms ,’’ he said.
He also recalled that the agency had serious challenges with its communications facilities, which were at their lowest ebb, when she assumed office in 2007 as the MD.
“She faced the challenges by procuring new and modern communication facilities to the agency and its story production rose from 60 to between 250 and 300 per day and the client-base also rose from 70 to 274.
“She brought the agency from a monolithic news agency that was based on text to a multi-media content provider.
“The agency was able to attract more clients to it and continued to earn more revenues.
“Mrs Oyo delivered 19 state offices across the country and she was the architect, designer and deliverer of the NAN media centre, where we are having this night of tributes.
“When she mooted the idea that we were going to build the media centre, we asked where the funding was going to come from and she said that we were going to work for it. Today that dream has become a reality,’’ Adebayo said.
Mr Lateef Ibirogba, Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos, said that Oyo would be remembered for her professionalism and excellence.
He said: “We are gathered here today to celebrate professionalism, excellence and a knack for standards.
“We are gathered here to celebrate a woman who came, saw and conquered. She made sure that whatever she laid her hands on prospered,’’ he said.
The commissioner said that the life of Oyo was an example for all journalists and a pattern on which to build a professional journalistic career.
Mrs Comfort Obi, the Executive Secretary of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), described Oyo as a friend, sister, colleague, mentor and confidant.
Obi said that since her paths crossed with that of Oyo at a meeting in NAN many years ago, the deceased had been a major influence in her private life and her career.
“We (Oyo and I) were a formidable force. For female journalists, for years, women journalists were not looked upon as unimportant in the industry.
“We were only allowed to cover mundane beats, the consequential beats were considered to be for men; but we broke that ceiling,’’ she said.
Mr Lanre Arogundade, the former Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Chapter, said that Oyo was a dominant and prominent force in the campaign for the passage of the Freedom of Information bill into an act.
Arogundade said that Oyo was one of the journalists who stood to be counted in the 1990’s, when journalists were being jailed, exiled and persecuted in the country.
“She was a river who never forgot her source, particularly after she became the Senior Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“She kept an open door policy in all her positions. She also made NAN a media conglomerate, introduced radio productions and sent journalists to NAN offices all over the world with limited funds,’’ he stressed.
He said that Oyo would be remembered for her candour, charisma, love and laughter.
Dr Nwabu Mgbemena, a former General Manager of NAN, as well as its first MD, said that Oyo would be remembered for her hard work and as a very outgoing and friendly person.
He said that when Oyo came to NAN for the first time as a staff, he had no idea of the quality of the person the agency had just recruited.
Similarly, Pastor Moses Ihonde, Chairman, Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME), commended her dedication to duty and professionalism while she was alive.
He said this manifested in the way she handled her job as the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to former President Obasanjo.
“From when we met I knew that Remi would go places. I was expecting that she would be a state governor, a senator or the first woman to be president of Nigeria. But God knows the best,’’ he said.
Interspersed with religious songs and pictures and video clips of some of Oyo’s outings, the event was witnessed by who-is-who in the Nigerian media.