Former ANPP Secretary, Kumo dies at 71

A former National Secretary of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Senator Sa’idu Umar Kumo is dead.

He died early Sunday morning at the age of 71 at a hospital in Gwagwalada, Abuja, after a brief undisclosed illness, a family source said.

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Late Kumo represented Gombe Central Senatorial District of Gombe State at the National Assembly between 1999 and 2003.

He was made the National Secretary of the defunct ANPP shortly after the party lost the 2007 general elections.

He was later appointed as Special Adviser by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, when the latter formed a government of national unity.

Kumo contested for the governorship seat of Gombe State in 2011, but lost to former Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He was the Director-General of Dankwambo’s campaign for second term in 2015.

The deceased who held the traditional title of Garkuwan Gombe, was elder brother to former FCT Minister, Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar and Lamido Umar Chikaire, erstwhile Chief of Staff to former Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje.

He was survived by four wives, 15 children, many grand children among others.
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Death of Senator Kumo major loss to APC – Buhari

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday said with the death of Senator Saidu Umar Kumo the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had lost a “pillar of strength in Gombe State whose defection in 2019 had energized supporters for change.”

President Buhari, in a condolence message in Abuja, described the demise of Senator Kumo as “a major loss to the ruling APC”.

The President, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, said: “I have received the news of the death of Senator Kumo with profound shock and sadness because his contributions to the growth of our party cannot be forgotten.

“Let me put it on record that the history of victory in 2019 cannot be written without reckoning with the significant contributions of the late Senator Saidu Umar Kumo who had brought his enormous political goodwill into our efforts to retain power.”

President Buhari also mourned the death of Madawakin Keffi, Abubakar Senior, a distinguished civil servant and the second in command in the Keffi Emirate Council.

The President prayed to Allah to forgive the souls of Kumo and Senior, reward their good deeds with aljanna, and grant fortitude to their families, friends, associates, the governments and people of Gombe and Nasarawa States to bear the losses.