A former Nigerian senator, Ayogu Eze, is dead.
He died on Thursday aged 66.
Mr Eze represented the Enugu North District between 2007 and 2015. He won his elections and served as a senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But he died a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) having defected to the party in 2018.
The former senator died Thursday morning in an undisclosed hospital in Abuja after a protracted illness.
His former media aide, who asked not to be named, confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES, Thursday evening.
“He (Ayogu Eze) has been sick for a long time. His current driver and another of his aide confirmed to me that he died this morning,” he stated.
Another source from Mr Eze’s community said some distant family members of the former senator had been informed of the death.
He said the family will soon make an official announcement about the death.
Ayogu Eze at a glance
Mr Eze hailed from Umuida, a community in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria’s south-east.
A journalist by training and practice, he made his foray into Nigerian politics in 1998 when he contested and emerged the pioneer Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
By 1999, the then newly elected governor of the state, Chimaroke Nnamani, appointed the politician as the state commissioner for information and culture.
He would later serve as special adviser to the then Governor Nnamani, a position he held until his election into the Nigerian Senate in 2007 under the PDP platform.
At the senate, he headed several committees.
In 2015, the politician sought to become governor of Enugu State, but was defeated in the PDP primary by Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who eventually won in the general election.
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In 2018, Mr Eze defected to the APC on which platform he sought to contest the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The former senator only withdrew from the race after the Independent National Electoral Commission omitted his name in the final list of candidates taking part in the election.
He wanted to challenge his alleged exclusion from the election at a court of law, but was prevailed upon by some leaders in the state not to do so.
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