Senator Uche Chukwumerije is dead.
Chukwumerije, a former Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Education, died on
Sunday in a Turkish Hospital in Abuja at the
age of 75.
He was a three-time senator that
represented Abia North Senatorial District.
He was elected into the Senate in 2003.
Chika Chukwumerije, son of the deceased,
told the News Agency of Nigeria in a
telephone interview that his father died of
lung cancer at exactly 4.30pm on Sunday.
Chika said: “We are trying to organise some
things.
“He died at exactly 4.30pm this evening.
“He died here in Abuja and was surrounded
by his friends before his last breath.
“He has been an inspiration in ways I cannot
explain.”
Chika also told NAN that burial
arrangements would be communicated once
it had been concluded.
Chukwumerije, elected a senator of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria in April 2003,
represented Abia North Senatorial District.
He served as Minister of Information in the
dying days of the military regime of former
Military President, General Ibrahim
Babangida, and later served in the same
capacity in the Interim National Government
of Chief Ernest Shonekan.
NAN recalls that Senator Chukwumerije was
rumoured to have slumped and died in 2014
after the legislator lost his return bid to the
Senate in a Peoples Democratic Party
primary election.
The rumour was later described as the
handiwork of “a few ungodly and
irresponsible individuals”..