SAD! Nigeria's Second Republic Former Minister Of Transport, Umaru Dikko Is Dead

Umaru Dikko

Nigeria’s Second Republic  Minister of Transport, Alhaji Umaru Dikko has died this morning.

He died in the early hours of Tuesday in a...
London Hospital at the age of 78.

Dikko, until his death, was the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

He, however, did not function well in the position as a result of his ill health.
 
Mr. Dikko was popularly known as one of the most powerful ministers under the Shehu Shagari regime in the early 1980s. When the military ousted the regime via a coup d’etat in 1983, Mr. Dikko escaped to the UK on exile. The military regime led by then head of state, Muhammadu Buhari, accused Dikko of massive corruption and official graft and thus secretly organized his kidnapping from the streets of London.

In 1984, Mr. Dikko was kidnapped, drugged and packaged as a diplomatic baggage in a cargo ready to be shipped to Lagos Nigeria unconscious.  His abductors were later arrested by the UK police as they tried to ship him through Stansed airport in London.
Dikko later returned to Nigeria where he has since participated in politics. He was aged 78.

May his soul rest in peace!