Former NSO boss, Umar Shinkafi, is dead, Buhari mourns

Prominent politician and former boss of the National Security Organisation, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, is dead.
A statement by the Presidency on Wednesday confirmed the development.
Shinkafi, a Federal Commissioner of Internal Affairs in 1975, was also a presidential aspirant during the Third Republic.
Shinkafi joined the Nigerian Police Force in 1959, after passing through the Police College in Kaduna.
In 1973, he graduated from the University of Lagos and a year later, he graduated from the Nigerian Law School.
During the Third Republic, Shinkafi was one of the promoters of the Nigerian National Congress, a political association formed in 1989 after the disbanding of political groups by the administration of former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
The NNC later fused with the National Republican Convention.
Early on, Shinkafi emerged as a leading presidential candidate during the period Babangida banned old breed politicians.
He created a Choice ’92 campaign group for his presidential ambition, which intended to have a canvasser in every ward of the federation.
But after the unbanning of old breed politicians, he had to face tough competition in Adamu Ciroma, who had earlier supported his ambition.
However, the primaries were later annulled and the presidential politicians banned.
A new primary to be conducted under a new Option A4 electoral system was approved by Babangida.
During the next primaries, Shinkafi supported the eventual presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention, Bashir Tofa, and the party chairmanship aspirant, Hamed Kusamotu.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the government and people of Zamfara State on the passing away of Shinkafi, whom he described as one of their illustrious sons.
President Buhari described the departed politician, administrator and technocrat as an expert whose contributions to the development of the security architecture of Nigeria remains indelible, adding that others carried on where he left off.
The President recalled that the former Federal Commissioner of Internal Affairs and boss of the National Security Organisation 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, who held the Marafan Sokoto traditional title, 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.
President Buhari prayed that Almighty Allah will grant the soul of the departed eternal rest.