by Anike Jacobs
Senator Uche Chukwumerije died yesterday in a Turkish Hospital, Abuja.
This was confirmed in a statement by Senate Spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.
1. The former Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije died after battling lung cancer.
2. He was born November 1939, studied Economics at the University of Ibadan and was was elected a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in April 2003.
3. Until his demise, he was representing Abia North Senatorial District on the platform of the PDP.
4. He was a one time information minister under the Babangida regime.
5. Chukwumerije served as minister of information in the interim national government of Ernest Shonekan.
6. In the Fourth Republic, Chukwumerije was elected to the Senate on the Peoples Democratic Party’s platform, but he fell out of favour with the party’s leadership when he opposed the Third Term Agenda.
7. Chukwumerije eventually decamped to the Progressive Peoples Alliance in 2006, and was reelected to the Senate on April 28, 2007.
8. Chukwumerije is divorced with 7 children.
9. He was surrounded with his family when he died.
10. Details of burial arrangements will be announced in due course.
