Billionaire business mogul and African diplomat, Chief Antonio Dehinde Fernandez is dead.
The 79-year-old’s demise was announced by ace journalist and publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu who took to his official Twitter account to break the news on Tuesday.
“Nigeria, and indeed Africa, has just lost one of its greatest sons. Ambassador Chief Antonio Dehinde Fernandez is gone!” Momodu said.
Fernandez, who is a Lagosian, served as an adviser, in 1982, to the Angolan Government on Economic Matters, a position he held for two years until his appointment as Deputy Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations in 1984.
In 1992, he was appointed as Special Adviser to the President of Mozambique on International Economic Matters, a position he held for three years.[
Fernandez who reportedly died in Belgium, was said to have run an oil company called Petro Inett which obtained a 50% share with South African-based Energy Africa Limited in a deal with the state oil company for exploration rights in a 4,700 km2 area of Angola’s coast in 1996.
He was until his death a Permanent Representative of the Central African Republic to the United Nations.
No member of his family was available for comments as at the time of filing this report.