The first civilian governor of Abia State and former Minister of Science and Technology under President Muhammadu Buhari, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, is dead. He was aged 71.
He has been in an Abuja hospital for the past month for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment.
Details of his death are still sketchy but sources close to his family confirmed that he suffered a stroke last month and died today, Thursday, in Abuja.
Ogbonnaya Onu was a lecturer at University of Port Harcourt before he made a foray into National Politics during the scuttled transition to civilian rule of former president Ibrahim Babangida from 1991 to 1993.
He was elected governor in 1992 and served till the late Sani Abacha overthrew Ernest Shonekan’s administration in 1994.
A prominent member of the All Progressives Congress in Ebonyi State, Dr. Onu was one of the presidential aspirants on the party’s platform during the 2023 election.
