The Emir of Kagara in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State, Salihu Tanko, is dead.
Mr Tanko died at the IBB specialist hospital in Minna, the state capital, after a protracted illness.
The secretary of the local council, Bala Mohammed, said the remains of the monarch will be laid to rest Monday evening.
The state governor, Abubakar Bello, described his death as a colossal loss to the Kagara Emirate and the state in general.
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“We have lost a First Class Emir, a member of the State Council of Traditional Rulers, an octogenarian and an elder statesman whose wise counsel has been of immense value to this administration and those before it in the state,” the governor said in a statement.
Kagara recently made headline news over the abduction of 38 students and staff of the Government Science College in the town.
Bandits attacked the school on February 17 and took the victims from two male hostels and the staff quarters.
The abducted persons were released 10 days later, but bandits returned to the area on the same day, killing four persons and kidnapping many others in different attacks on Kagara and surrounding villages.