By Iheanacho Nwosu, Abuja
FORMER director-general of defunct National Security Organisation (now Department of State Securit, DSS) Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi is dead. He died yesterday at a London hospital, aged 79.
Zamfara State Information Commissioner, Alhaji Umar Jibo, as well as Vice Chancellor of Sokoto State University, Prof. Nuhu Yaqub confirmed his death.
Jibo further said his remains will be flown back to Nigeria tomorrow for prayers at Sultan Bello Mosque, Sokoto before his interment in Sokoto.
He was Marafa Sokoto and was also Pro Chancellor of the Sokoto State University.
A family member also confirmed that the remains of the late security chief, who vied for president on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1992, will be flown to Sokoto and interred same day.
He disclosed that the news of Shinkafi’s death was conveyed through a phone call from London to the younger brother of the deceased, Alhaji Mamuda Shinkafi, former governor of Zamfara between 2007 and 2011.
The former governor was with the state chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aliyu Muhammad Anka when the call came through.
According to the family member, who declined to be named, the late NSO, before being moved to a London hospital, was hospitalised in some top hospitals in Nigeria. The younger Shinkafi said early in the year, the politician fell ill and was admitted at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos.
When his condition did not improve, he was flown to London.
Shinkafi, whose siblings are predominately PDP members is a father-in-law to incumbent governor of Zamfara state, Abdullaziz Yari, who is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The late Umaru, would, however, be buried in Sokoto because of the traditional title he held in the state, another family source clarified yesterday.
Shinkafi, a lawyer, was a household name in Nigeria both as a security chief and a politician.
He joined the Nigerian Police Force in 1959 after passing through the Police College in Kaduna and obtained a Bachelor in Law in 1973 from the University of Lagos.
Between 1975 and 1978, he served as a federal commissioner of Internal Affairs.
When the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo handed power to Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979, Shinkafi was appointed director-general of the influential NSO.
He was, however, shoved aside by the military putsch of Major General Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 1983. He was detained and later released by the regime.
Shinkafi made a return to national limelight during the transition of then military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida.
First, he led the then political association, Nigerian National Congress (NNC). The association was formed in 1989.
It later merged with other political associations and was christened National Republican Convention (NRC).
He aspired for the office of president on the platform, but the ticket was later given to Alhaji Bashir Tofa who lost to Bashorun Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).