Elder-statesman, Umaru Shinkafi is dead at 79.

[Vanguard] Elder-statesman, businessman and retired policeman, Umaru Shinkafi, is dead, aged 79.

He died at the Harefield Hospital, Hill End Road, Harefield, Middlesex, in the United Kingdom Wednesday afternoon after a prolonged illness. Sources at the Palace of Sultan of Sokoto indicate that the deceased passed away in the company of his wives, children and extended family members.

Mr. Shinkafi, who held the traditional title of Marafan Sokoto, was a native of Zamfara State. He was a Federal Commissioner of Internal Affairs and a presidential aspirant in the third Republic. He also had an extensive career in military intelligence.

“The body will be flown back to Nigeria tomorrow for burial at Abubakar III burial ground in Sokoto,” one source said yesterday. Mr. Shinkafi is survived by three wives, and five children. One of his daughters is Zainab, wife of Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, and another is Hadiza, the wife of Zamfara governor, AbdulAzeez Yari. Shinkafi would be remembered for his pioneering role in the creation of the National Security Organisation, NSO, the secretive security arm of the Nigerian security apparatus which he headed from 1999 till 1983. Following his retirement from the police and the NSO, Shinkafi, a trained lawyer, entered into business and eventually into politics and was one of the leading lights of the conservative side of Nigerian politics in the ill-fated Third Republic.

His bid for the presidency in the Third Republic led him to the formation of the defunct Nigerian National Congress, NNC which eventually collapsed into the National Republican Convention, NRC.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the government and people of Sokoto State on the passing of former Federal Commissioner of Internal Affairs, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi. In a statement by Mr. Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesman, President Buhari described the departed politician, administrator and technocrat, as an expert whose contributions to the development of the security architecture of Nigeria would remain indelible, adding that others carried on where he left off.

Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, also commiserated with the government and people of Zamfara State and all Nigerians over the death of Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Marafan Sokoto. Dogara, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Turaki Hassan, in Lagos, described the death of the elderstatesman as a huge loss to the nation. He said Shinkafi was a true democrat who contributed immensely towards the restoration of democracy in Nigeria in 1999.

“In all his years in the public service, Shinkafi distinguished himself as a patriot, committed and dedicated Nigerian,” the speaker said. In a message of condolence issued in Sokoto by his spokesman, Malam Imam Imam, Governor Aminu Tambuwal described Shinkafi as a distinguished legal luminary, security expert, politician with conscience and great community leader and mobiliser.

“Marafa’s death has closed a chapter in the life of one of Nigeria’s most valuable public officers, who made his mark in both public and private sectors. He was a truly passionate Nigerian whose invaluable contributions to issues of national interest will be greatly missed. “His law office served as training ground for many aspiring lawyers in Sokoto State and beyond.