Former Senate Leader and ex-Board Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, has joined other prominent Nigerians to condole with the people and government of Yobe State, over the demise of the state’s first elected governor, Senator Abba Bukar Ibrahim.
The former Yobe helmsman believed to have built the foundation for the growth and development of the state, reportedly died on Sunday in Saudi Arabia, where he was said to be receiving medical treatment.
Ndoma-Egba in a statement described the late Senator Bukar as a patriotic Nigerian whose contributions to the advancement of Yobe State and sustenance of democracy in the country were enormous.
Praying for the peaceful repose of his soul, the ex-Senate Leader who has known and related with the decreased Bukar since in the 1980s, said he had always been a jolly good fellow.
“I pray God to grant his soul peaceful repose in His bosom. May He forgive him his sins and admit him to Paradise.
“We met as Commissioners for Works and Transport (1984 – 86). He was Commissioner in the old Borno State and I was Commissioner in the old Cross River State..
“We had only 19 States then. We both sought to be Governors of our respective States under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s transition. He succeeded. I did not. We were to meet again in the Senate. He was still the same jolly good fellow,” Ndoma-Egba stated.
The late Abba Bukar, a quantity surveyor became the first elected governor of Yobe State in January 1992 after its creation in August 1991 from old the Borno State during the transition programme of IBB.
The transition programme was thwarted in November 1993 by the late General Sani Abacha. However, upon the return of democracy in 1999, Bukar was again elected as Yobe governor and he successfully secured re-election in 2003.
At the end of his tenure as governor in 2007, he was elected into the Senate to represent the people of Yobe East Senatorial District. He was in the Senate until 2019 when he stepped down for Ibrahim Geidam, the immediate past governor of Yobe State now Minister of Police Affairs.
