A former Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ibrahim Mantu, is dead.
He was 74 years of age.
Mantu died at a private hospital in Abuja, at around 2am on Tuesday, August 17, after nine days of illness and isolation.
He died of COVID-19 complications, reports say.
“He fell ill about nine days ago and was receiving treatment at home but he was rushed to the hospital when there was no sign of improvement,” a source tells Daily Trust newspaper.
Mantu was a prominent player in the nation’s political landscape for many years.
He was elected Deputy Senate President in 2001 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a position he held till 2007 when he left the senate.
Mantu hailed from Gindiri District in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
In a recent autobiography, Senator Orji Kalu, a former Abia Governor, said Mantu helped kill ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo's third term agenda in 2006, on the floor of the National Assembly.
“Mantu was the one who scuttled the third term, and in doing so, he incurred Obasanjo’s eternal hatred. So Nigerians should celebrate him,” Kalu wrote.
Mantu was born on February 16, 1947.