Facts have emerged on how former Military Governor of Imo and Lagos states, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (Rtd), died.

News of his death was confirmed by multiple sources shortly after News Express reported the story earlier today – on Wednesday morning, January 13, 2021.

The revered elder statesman, a native of Isuikwuato in Abia State, died earlier this morning in a Lagos hospital after a brief illness.

Kanu, who celebrated his 78th birthday last November, was Military Governor of old Imo State in 1975 and of Lagos State in 1976.

He also made news in 1975 when he broke the glass ceiling as the only Igbo appointed into the then ruling Supreme Military Council before General Olusegun Obasanjo dissolved it when he assumed office as Head of State in 1976.

A Biafra war veteran, Kanu was reabsorbed into the Nigerian military at the end of the war in 1970. He built a new reputation as a dogged human rights and pro-democracy activist upon his retirement from the military. A staunch member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which spearheaded the struggle for the actualisation of the late Moshood Abiola’s annulled June 12, 1993 presidential mandate, Kanu was among those who signed an ultimatum for the General Sani Abacha regime to revalidate Abiola’s mandate and hand over power to him.

He was the chairman of NADECO’s Action Committee, which organised and participated in protest marches and public sensitisation activities.

Kanu was years ago immortalised by the Lagos State Government as evidenced by the Ndubuisi Kanu Park located near the state seat of power at Alausa, Ikeja.

News of his death has elicited widespread mourning and a rain of tributes.

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