President Muhammadu Buhari, Governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), and Yahaya Bello (Kogi) have grieved the death of former presidential candidate of defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa.
Tofa died yesterday at the age of 74. He died at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital after a protracted illness and was buried according to Islamic rites in Kano.
Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the late politician and businessman as a nationalist whose personage would be difficult to replace.
President Buhari, who has commiserated with Governor Ganduje, also sent a high-powered delegation to Kano to express his condolences.
The statement reads: “President Buhari leads the nation in mourning Bashir Tofa, a politician of note, who once ran as a presidential candidate in a two-horse race, who was also a promoter of Islamic culture and civilization.
“The late Tofa was noted for his untiring commitment to public enlightenment and was unafraid to speak the truth all the time that he lived.
“He set up the Bureau for Islamic Propagation (BIP) in the mid-1980s, which helped to unite Muslim scholars in the northern states, narrowing the differences that characterized their relationships. The BIP also published books and newspapers.”
