By Ozioruva Aliu

A former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Zakawanu Garuba is dead. He was 54.

He was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and was speaker between 2007 and 2009.

He reportedly died in Abuja in the early hours of yesterday, July 18 after a brief undisclosed illness.

Vanguard gathered that the former lawmaker may have died from complications arising from coronavirus.

“He has been done for some days now and he was rushed to the hospital late Friday but he died this morning,” a family source said.

His body is expected to arrive in Auchi his home town in Etsako West local government area and would be buried according to Islamic rights.

The ex-lawmaker, a former member of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was born in the northern Edo State town of Auchi, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state on August 23, 1965.

He attended Our Lady of Fatima College, Auchi between 1978 and 1983 before proceeding to the famous Edo College, Benin for his Higher School Certificate, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Osun State where he took a in law in 1989 and was called to the bar in 1990.

Friends and former classmates have taken to social media to mourn the passage of the former two-time lawmaker.

A former member of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr Pascal Ugbome, the World Wide President (WWP) of Our Lady of Fatima College Old Boys Association (OLOFOBA) who took to the association’s WhatsApp chat group to mourn, described him as a friend, brother and passionate Olofobaite.

Ugbome wrote: “Our friend, brother and passionate Olofobaite Rt. Hon. Zakawanu Garuba has gone to be with the Lord. He passed on this morning. Oh God, what a Loss.”

Vanguard