A former Nigerian Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, is dead.
A family source told Daily Trust that Mantu died at about 2am on Tuesday at a private hospital in Abuja after nine days of sickness and isolation.
The former lawmaker, who died at the age of 74, is expected to be buried on Tuesday in Abuja.
Mantu was elected as the senator representing Plateau central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 before being elected as the deputy president of the senate in August 2001.
Mantu, who hails from Gindiri District in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, worked in various establishments before joining politics.
The former Governor of Abia state, Orji Kalu, describing the late lawmaker in his autobiography released in 2020, said Mantu acted as a true hero in the efforts to stop the third term agenda of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006.
Kalu added that Mantu who was the then chairman of the senate constitution review committee worked against the agenda to amend the 1999 constitution and extend the presidential term limit by another four years had failed to pass at the national assembly.
He said, “Mantu was the one who scuttled the third term, and in doing so, he incurred Obasanjo’s eternal hatred. So Nigerians should celebrate him.”
