Former presidential candidate Bashir Tofa is dead

Former Presidential Candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa is dead.

A family source, who confirmed the death, said Tofa passed in the early hours of Monday at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano after a brief illness.

Tofa died 29 years after contesting and losing a presidential election against late Chief Mashood Abiola, an election that was botched by the military junta of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

The death of the elder statesman and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) early went viral on social media last Friday but was later put to rest by the family source who confirmed that the business tycoon was only critically sick then.

The burial arrangement is to be announced but the deceased may be buried today in line with Islamic rites.

Tofa’s death came a few days after the ancient city of Kano lost one of its illustrious and foremost medical doctors in Northern Nigeria, Dr Ahmad Datti.