Nigeria: Former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu Dies at 74

Ibrahim Mantu, a former Deputy President of Nigeria’s Senate is dead. He was aged 74 years.

Reports suggest Mantu died in the Nigerian capital, Abuja after a few days of admission at a private hospital in the early hours of Tuesday.

The late Mr Mantu was born in Chanso village, Gindiri District, Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State on February 16, 1947. He attended the Gindiri Demonstration Primary School from 1955 – 1961 and obtained the First School Leaving Certificate.

He worked with the Public Works Department (PWD) Jos, as a Stores Requisition Clerk from 1962 – 1963 before proceeding to the Gindiri Teachers College in 1964. On leaving Gindiri in 1967, he joined the Nigerian Tobacco Company, Zaria in 1968 as a Quality Checker.

He moved to BEAM, a division of UAC Nigeria as a Kalamazoo Specialist Salesman in 1971.

Mr Mantu studied on his own to obtain O’ level GCE and Diploma in Professional Salesmanship which facilitated his movement to John Holt Ltd. in 1973 as a Trainee-Manager. He was later confirmed as a substantive Manager.

Mr Mantu holds a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Political Science from the Washington International University. He was awarded Honourary Doctorate Degrees of Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, University of Jos, Madonna University, Okija and University of Applied Sciences and Management Port Novo, Benin Republic.

Funeral prayers for the former lawmaker would hold Tuesday at Apo legislative mosque, Abuja.

Mr Mantu joined politics in 1978 and was elected Deputy State Chairman of NPN in Plateau State in 1980. He was a founding member of the Liberal Convention.

Mantu was elected as the senator representing Plateau central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 and was elected deputy president of the senate in August 2001.

He was also a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

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