The rumour mill once again went on overdrive Friday night, spreading the false report about the purported death of a former presidential candidate of National Republican Convention (NRC) in the 1993 aborted third republic, Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa.
The report which went viral on Friday night had since been debunked by a close associate of Tofa, Alhaji Ahmed Na’abba.
Na’abba was reported to have said that Tofa was alive, whike another source claimed he was critically ill and hospitalised.
Na’abba weighed in on the sensitive issue in an interview with Freedom Radio, where he dismissed the rumour about Tofa’s death, saying he was alive.
A publication, Solacebase, reportedly quoted a leading member of Coalition of Northern Group (CNG), Nastura Ashir Shariff, to have confirmed that Bashir Tofa was alive but critically ill and hospitalized.
Nigerian Sketch reports that a call its correspondent made to Tofa’s home on Friday night was not received.
During the Nigerian Second Republic, Tofa was at various times the secretary of the Kano branch of NPN.
He later became the party’s national financial secretary and was a national member of the Green Revolution National Committee.
During the Third Republic, he was part of the Liberal Movement which metamorphosed to Liberal Convention when it was not registered as a political party.
Tofa joined NRC in 1990.
In 1993, when the Babangida administration introduced the Option A4 system, Tofa was elected the party’s presidential candidate.
During the party primaries, he defeated Pere Ajunwa, Joe Nwodo and Dalhatu Tafida to clinch the NRC ticket.
His running mate in the election was Sylvester Ugoh, an Igbo and a former governor of the now defunct Central Bank of Biafra. Both were members of the defunct National Party of Nigeria.
Tofa was apparently defeated in the presidential election by his rival Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, but the official results were never released by Babangida’s government.
Tofa is also a businessman, an oil trader and industrialist. He was chairman of International Petro-Energy Company (IPEC) and Abba Othman and Sons Ltd. He was also involved as a board member in Impex Ventures, Century Merchant Bank and General Metal Products Ltd. (Additional report by Nigerian Sketch)
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