10th February, 2021
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has died after the car in which he was travelling crashed on the Mafa-Maiduguri Road in Borno State on Tuesday.
According to a witness, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed who was the Mai Kanuribe (head of Kanuri people) in Lagos, alongside his friend, were pronounced dead at the scene while one other person survived the crash.
The witness said the three were returning in a Lexus SUV from Mafa Town after the flag off of the APC membership registration and revalidation exercise.
Governor Babagana Zulum who arrived the scene shortly after the crash directed his medical team to transport the survivor to a medical facility while the late Alhaji Mohammed and his late friend were taken to his house in Bulunkutu, Maiduguri, accompanied by the governor, where funeral prayers were conducted.
Contrary to media reports, Borno State Government on Tuesday issued a statement which said the convoy of Governor Zulum was not involved in road accident.
The statement signed by the spokesman to the governor, Malam Isa Gusau described as “a completely inaccurate news flash published online by an international broadcast news media, which erroneously reported that Zulum’s convoy was today, involved in accident.”
The statement said: “While acknowledging with so much grief, empathy for the bereaved families, honour and the highest respect for the memory of the Mai Kanuribe of Lagos, Alhaji Mustapha Muhammad, who alongside two others, died in a car accident along Maiduguri-Mafa road on Tuesday in Borno State, we hereby clarify that the convoy of Governor Babagana Umara Zulum was not in any way involved in the accident referred to. The news report was completely inaccurate.”
Gusau agreed that the deceased ‘no doubt’ travelled to Mafa in solidarity with Governor Zulum’s administration and the APC but left for Maiduguri ahead of the governor.
“The governor alongside Senator Kashim Shettima and some leaders, came across the accident on way back from Mafa and as expected, the governor and those accompanying him, followed bodies of the Mai, and others, to their families in Maiduguri, empathized with bereaved families and took part in funerals,” it said.
He said the governor ‘very deeply’ shared the grief of the Mai’s bereaved family and the families of those who died with him.
“The Governor prays that Allah forgives the shortcomings of the Mai, and those who died with him, and admits all of them into Aljanna Firdaus” Gusau wrote in the statement,” the statement said.