The former governor of Yobe State, Bukar Abba Ibrahim has died.
He died in Saudi Arabia after a protracted illness on Sunday, February 4, 2024, at age 75.
Another source close to the family posted on his Facebook page: “Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun.
Born in 1949, Bukar Abba Ibrahim was the governor of Yobe State from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007.
He earlier served as the pioneer elected governor of the state from January 1992 to November 1993 in the aborted Third Republic.
During his first term, on August 5, 1993, he split the state’s four emirates into 13. The change was reversed by the military regime of Sani Abacha. In his second term after the return to democracy, on January 6, 2000, he re-implemented the new emirates, adding Ngazargamu, Gujba, Nguru, Tikau, Pataskum, Yusufari, Gudi, Fune and Jajere.
In 2007, he was elected to the Senate to represent Yobe East. He ran for re-election in the 2011 Senatorial contest for Yobe East on the ANPP platform, and won until 2015 when he quit the Senate seat for Ibrahim Gaidam, also a former governor of Yobe State.
In August 2021, the former governor lost his daughter, Aisha Bukar Abba, also known as Ya’Ummi.
Forty-two-year-old Aisha, a staff member of the Central Bank of Nigeria, died in Cairo, Egypt, following complications related to childbirth.