Thousands Present In Tears As Umaru Shinkafi’s Corpse Arrives Sokoto For Burial
The remains of former presidential aspirant, Alh. Umaru Aliyu Shinkafi has arrived at the Sultan Abubakar International Airport in Sokoto state.
Daughters of the deceased including Dr Zainab Atiku Bagudu, wife of the Kebbi State Governor and Hajiya Fatima Shinkafi, Zamfara State Commissioner of Commerce are among those that accompanied the dead body of the late Marafan Sokoto.
The Governors of Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States, and Magajin Garin Sokoto representing the Sultan of Sokoto were among hundreds of people that witnesses their arrival. His funeral prayer is expected to hold in Sokoto State shortly.
One of Nigeria’s most prominent politicians, elder statesman and former presidential aspirant Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Marafan Sokoto, died in a London hospital yesterday. He was 79.
His daughter Hajiya Fatima Umaru Aliyu Shinkafi, who is the Zamfara State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, confirmed his death and said he had suffered from a heart ailment for some time.
Born in January 1937, Shinkafi went to Barewa College, Zaria in the 1950s and thereafter joined the Nigeria Police in 1959. He started as an Inspector based in Enugu and rose through the ranks to head the police’s Special Branch in Enugu during the Nigeria Civil War. He was the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State in the early 1970s.
In 1975, General Murtala Mohammed appointed Shinkafi as the Federal Commissioner [i.e. minister] of Internal Affairs. In October 1979, President Shehu Shagari appointed him Director General of the National Security Organisation [NSO], the position that earned him a reputation as Nigeria’s super spook.