- A Throwback on Ex-President Zik’s Rumoured Death
A picture has emerged showing the former Senate President, Senator David Mark with the former military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (otherwise hailed as IBB) whose death rumours have been trending since the early hours of Sunday.
Senator Mark had on Sunday morning, rushed to the IBB’s Presidential Hilltop Mansion in Minna, Niger State to first-hand confirm for himself, the rumoured death of IBB, his former boss in the military. But to Mark’s relief, he physically met the Army General full of life and shook hands with him, smiling to the cameras as seen in the picture.
The picture further dispels IBB’s rumoured death as the spokesman for the former military President, Kassim Afegbua had issued a statement describing it as “fake news”.
Afegbua said: “IBB is very much alive and bubbling. He just started attending to friends and associates who came to see him today, Sunday, 15th December, 2019 right here at his Minna Hilltop mansion.
“He is full of life and in his characteristic bubbling mood.”
Throw Back
IBB was not the first former President whose death rumours had been punctured as Nigerians had in the past peddled the death rumours of some former Presidents and eminent personalities in the country, including incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. A notable one was that of the first Nigerian President, late Nmandi Azikwe.
In 1991, two of Azikwe’s associates — late R.B.K Okafor and K.O Mbadiwe went to town with the news of his death, throwing the country into a mourning mood.
Many had believed the news because it came from Zik’s associates and eminent Nigerians in their own right. It spread like harmattan wildfire and to stop the fake news from doing further damages, the former President had to come out of his mansion to address the students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) who had besieged his country home in large number.
Despite the official statement that Azikwe put out in the traditional media confirming he was alive, the UNN students had demanded to see him before going ahead to believe the statement dispelling rumours of his death.
