Datti Ahmad’s death: Shariah council names new president

The Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) has expressed sadness over the death of its president, Dr Ibrahim Datti Ahmad.

A statement on Sunday from the council said that Sheikh AbdurRashid Hadiyatullah, who was the Vice President of the council, is now its new President

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“The council is overwhelmed by the loss of one of its icons, Dr Ibrahim Datti Ahmad, who until his death was the president of the council.

“As we grieve over this great loss, in total submission to Allah and in line with the Constitution of the Council, Sheikh AbdurRashid Hadiyatullah, who was the Vice President of the council, is now the new President of Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria.

“We pray to Allah SWT to grant him the wisdom and guidance to further the noble objectives of the Council, in particular, the unity and progress of the Ummah,” the council said.

Dr Ahmad, a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), died last Thursday in Kano aged 83.

The elder statesman, who was one of the first generations of medical doctors in Kano, reportedly died in the early hours of December 30 after a protracted illness.

Popularly known as Dr Datti, the medical doctor left behind a wife and 10 children and has since been buried according to Islamic rites.

It would be recalled that Dr Datti had in 2013 declined to serve on the committee constituted by former President Goodluck Jonathan to mediate with members of Boko Haram.

He had while rejecting his membership of that committee accused the federal government of ‘lack of sincerity’ on the way it was handling insurgency in the North East.

Born in 1936 in Daigari, Kano, Dr Datti attended Barewa College, Zaria, Kaduna State before reading medicine at the University of Ibadan.

He began his working career as a House/Medical Officer in the Northern Nigerian Civil Service. At age 30 in 1966, he resigned to go into private medical practice with the establishment of Kano Clinics.

He had at various times served in public capacities including being the pro-chancellor and chairman of the governing council of the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) between 1976 and 1979.