Kogi State has declared three days of mourning following the death of former Governor Ibrahim Idris, who passed away in the United Kingdom on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at the age of 77.<\/p>\n
The death was confirmed by his nephew, Shehu Ahmed, who disclosed the development to AIT on Sunday. Earlier reports said that the former governor died in the UK, although details surrounding the circumstances of his death remained limited as of press time.<\/p>\n
Following the confirmation, Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, expressed sorrow over the death of his predecessor and described it as a major loss to the state and Nigeria.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, in Lokoja, Ododo declared a three-day mourning period in honour of the late former governor.<\/p>\n
The governor also directed that the national flag and the Kogi State flag be flown at half-mast at government offices and other designated public institutions across the state throughout the mourning period.<\/p>\n
Ododo had earlier visited the Abuja residence of the late former governor, where he joined members of the Idris family and other officials in mourning the deceased. Former Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello was also reported to have visited the family.<\/p>\n
The governor further announced that Idris would receive a state burial, with the Kogi State Government taking responsibility for the burial expenses and making arrangements to accord him the honours due to a former governor.<\/p>\n
In his condolence message to the family, Ododo described Idris as an eminent Kogi son who devoted a significant part of his life to public service.<\/p>\n
According to the governor, the administration of the late former governor recorded interventions in infrastructure, education, healthcare and other sectors, which he said formed part of the developmental history of the state.<\/p>\n
Idris, popularly known as \u201cIbro\u201d or \u201cBaba Kogi,\u201d was born in 1949 and served as governor of Kogi State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
He was first elected governor in 2003 after defeating the then incumbent, Prince Abubakar Audu, and was sworn into office on May 29, 2003. He was re-elected in 2007, but the result was later nullified following a legal challenge concerning the exclusion of Audu from the ballot. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision in February 2008 and ordered a fresh election.<\/p>\n
Idris subsequently won the March 2008 re-run election and remained in office until January 2012, when he handed over to his successor, Captain Idris Wada. His tenure, spanning nearly nine years apart from a brief period in 2008, made him one of Kogi State’s longest-serving civilian governors.<\/p>\n
Before entering politics, Idris was a businessman. Reports said he founded Ibro Trading Company, with interests including construction, furniture manufacturing and hospitality, and established a furniture factory and the Ibro Hotel in Sokoto and Abuja.<\/p>\n
News of his death has also drawn condolences from political figures. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, described Idris as a significant figure in the political history of Kogi State and the PDP.<\/p>\n
Governor Ododo urged the Idris family, friends and associates to draw strength from the former governor’s years of public service and the memories he left behind.<\/p>\n
He extended condolences on behalf of the Kogi State Government and people to the family and all those mourning the former governor, and prayed that Almighty Allah would forgive Idris’s shortcomings, grant him Aljannatul Firdaus and give his family and the people of Kogi State the strength to bear the loss.<\/p>\n
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Kogi State has declared three days of mourning following the death of former Governor Ibrahim Idris, who passed away in the United Kingdom on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at the age of 77. The death was confirmed by his nephew, Shehu Ahmed, who disclosed the development to AIT on Sunday. Earlier reports said that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":100314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5781],"tags":[8182,59,1977,5732],"class_list":["post-100313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-obituary","tag-ibrahim","tag-kogi","tag-mourning","tag-ododo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100315,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100313\/revisions\/100315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/100314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}