TheCable

Salihu Tanko, the Emir of Kagara where 27 schoolboys were kidnapped in Niger state, is dead.

The schoolboys and some staff of Government Science College, Kagara, were released by their abductors last Saturday.

Abubakar Bello, governor of Niger, announced the demise of Tanko, describing his death as a great shock.

Bello in a statement by Mary Noel-Berje, his chief press secretary, on Tuesday, said the death of the Emir is a colossal loss to the state and the Kagara emirate.

“We have lost a first class emir, a member of the State Council of Traditional Rulers, an octogenarian and an elder statesman whose wise counsel has been of immense value to this administration and those before it in the state,” he said.

The governor said the deceased was a symbol of humility and patience, and that he was a peace-loving person who brought immense unity and progress to his emirate.

Bello commiserated with Yahaya Abubakar, Etsu Nupe and chairman council of traditional rulers, the immediate family and the people of Kagara emirate.

Tanko was 102.

The late Emir was promoted to the rank of first-class monarch in 1991 by Lawan Gwadabe, former military governor of Niger state.

Before then, he was a second-class chief of Kagara. He took over from Ahmadu Attahiru who held the position until his death in November 1981.