Popular rights activist Emma Ezeazu is no more. He died yesterday afternoon in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja after a protracted illness.

A notice of his death by the Abuja-based Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), of which he was a Board Member, described him as “a committed civil society activist and an ardent advocate of credible elections in Nigeria as a panacea to national development.”

“Mr. Ezeazu was a founding member of the Board whose resourcefulness and strict supervisory role have contributed immensely to the growth of CISLAC to her present status,” CISLAC Executive Director Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) said, adding:

“We commiserate with his family and the civil society community as a whole for this great loss. He left us at a time when his commitment, experience and well informed contributions are most needed.

“As we await the family to announce details of funeral arrangements in due course, we pray that God will grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss and that his soul rest in peace.”

Ezeazu came to the limelight as a firebrand President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from 1986 to 1988 while studying History (up to master’s degree level) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. After graduation, he became even more involved in activism, holding important positions in several rights groups. Ezeazu, who died in his late fifties, was at various times General Secretary of the Alliance for Credible Elections; President, Democratic Alternative, Board Member of CISLAC and Executive Director of the Centre for the Development of Civil Society, Community Action for Popular Participation and Civil Liberties Organisation.

He was equally an active member of the National Executive Committee of several other rights groups, among them of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), United Action for Democracy (UAD), as well as and member, National Coordinating Committee of the Campaign for Democracy.

Ezeazu was as at the time of his death a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was one of the unsung heroes of the party’s victory over the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 28 and April 11, 2015 general elections.

A committed APC member, Ezeazu in May last year donated a campaign office in Bwari, FCT Abuja, to APC. He sought to emerge as the party’s candidate for the House of Representatives for FCT Constituency but broke down in the middle of his campaign as a result of the kidney problem that eventually killed him. He lost by just 14 votes even though he contested the party primaries from his hospital bed.

•Photo shows late Emma Ezeazu.