The National Conference sitting in Abuja was today hit by another sad news of the death of a delegate, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar Jumare, from Kaduna State.

Dr. Jumare who came to the Conference as an Elder Statesman died in the early hours of today in Abuja and was buried later in the day in Zaria, Conference Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications, Akpandem James, said in a statement issued this evening in Abuja.

The late Dr. Jumare was born on August 20, 1943 in Kwarbai, Zaria City. He attended Town School Number 1 in 1949 -1952; Middle School, Soba Senior Primary School, Katsina Teachers College and Ahmadu Bello University, where he bagged the Doctor of Philosophy in 1989.

He started out as a primary school teacher in 1960 at the Zaria Local Authority and later transferred to the Treasury as Clerk in 1962. He rose to the position of Emirate Supervisor of Accounts and then Head of the Local Authority between 1973 and 1975.

After the Local Government Reforms, he became the first Principal Assistant Secretary and Head of Administration. He worked with the Ahmadu Bello University between 1986 and 1992 as Senior Lecturer and Senior Administrative Consultant. He was the General Manager Personnel and Administration at Peugeot Automobile Limited, Kaduna, between 1993 and 1999; and Chairman, Kaduna State Water Board, between 2003 and 2004.

Dr. Jumare had also served as a National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity Committee at the National Electoral Commission (INEC). He was also the Chairman of the 15-member National Advisory Committee on Delimitation of Constituencies constituted by INEC in 2008. His tenure at INEC lapsed in 2009.

He was reappointed Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission in Kaduna State in 2011, a position he was until his demise on Monday, May 5, 2014.

His burial was attended by the Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Ramalan Yero and the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji (Dr) Shehu Idris. The National Conference was represented by Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Assistant Secretary in charge of Finance and Administration.

A strong believer in the democratic process, Dr. Jumare once threatened to leave public service if there was an attempt to introduce another interim government in the country. While announcing INEC’s plan to hold a national conference on the 2007 general elections, Dr. Jumare was quoted as telling journalists that politicians should go and canvass for votes from the electorate instead of looking for short-cut to governance. “There is nothing like Interim National Government (ING). Many of us will leave if the government comes up with something like that,” he had said.

Dr. Jumare is the second delegate to die since the Conference was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 17 – the first being Mallam Hamma Misau, a retired Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of Police, who died March 27 of an undisclosed illness at the National Hospital in Abuja, aged 67.

•Photo shows National Conference Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi.

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