Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi dies in London hospital

Umaru Shinkafi Former Intelligence Officer and a presidential aspir­ant during the Third Re­public, who also was a Federal Commis­sioner of Internal Affairs, died yesterday in a hospital in Lon­don at about 4:07pm local time.
Shinkafi, the Marafan Soko­to, hailed from Zamfara State.
In a reaction to his death yesterday, President Muham­madu Buhari, commiserated with the government and peo­ple of Sokoto State on the pas­sage of Shinkafi.
He described the late poli­tician, administrator and tech­nocrat as an expert whose con­tributions to the development of the security architecture of Nigeria remains indelible, with others carrying on where he left off.

In a statement last night, Buhari through his Spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, recalled that Shinkafi, who was the head of the National Security Organ­isation (NSO), played front­line roles in the activities lead­ing to the eventual return and enthronement of democracy in the country.
He called on family mem­bers, friends and associates of the departed community leader to take solace in the fact that the late Shinkafi played the parts as­signed to him diligently, consci­entiously and patriotically, en­joining them to emulate the good virtues that he left behind.
The late Shinkafi had an ex­tensive career in military intel­ligence. He is survived by three wives, and five children.
One of his daughters is Zainab, wife of Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State and another is Hadiza, the wife of Governor AbdulAzeez Yari of Zamfara State.
Our source disclosed that, his remains will be flown back to Nigeria tomorrow for inter­ment at the Abubakar III Buri­al Ground in Sokoto.
Shinkafi joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1959 after pass­ing through the Police College in Kaduna. In 1973, he gradu­ated from the University of La­gos (UNILAG) and a year later, he graduated from the Nigerian Law School.
He became a Federal Com­missioner of Internal Affairs in 1975 and became Head of the NSO in 1979.
During the Third Republic, he was one of the promoters of the Nigerian National Con­gress (NNC), a political associ­ation formed in 1989 after the disbanding of political group­ing by the former Military Pres­ident, Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
The NNC later fused with the National Republican Con­vention (NRC).
Early on, Shinkafi emerged as a leading presidential candi­date during the period Baban­gida banned old breed politi­cians. He created “Choice 92” campaign group for his presi­dential ambition.
But after the unbanning of the old brigade politicians, he had to face tough competition in Adamu Ciroma, who had earlier supported his ambition. However, the primaries were annulled and he was banned.
A new primary election to be conducted under a new Op­tion A4 electoral system was ap­proved by Babangida.
During the next primaries, Shinkafi supported the eventu­al NRC presidential candidate, Bashir Tofa.