Barely one month after the first democratically elected governor of Plateau state, Chief Solomon Lar was buried, another former governor of the state, Mr Michael Botmang, has died at the age of 76.
His son, Mr Dadung Botmang, confirmed the sad news, explaining that the former governor died at his Zawan country home in Jos South Local Government of Plateau at about 2 a.m. on Saturday after a long struggle with kidney disease.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Dadung as adding that the remains of Botmang had been deposited at the mortuary of Air Force hospital, Jos.
Dadung further said that arrangements were being made by the family members to give the late political icon a befitting burial.
Botmag was the deputy to former Gov. Joshua Dariye, before he took over as governor following the political crisis which forced Dariye out of office. He ruled the state as governor for a period of six months before Dariye regained his mandate.
The deceased took ill shortly after leaving office and had been on treatment till his death on Saturday.
In his comment, Mr Silvanus Namang, a former Commissioner for Information under the late governor, described Botmang’s death as “very unfortunate’’.
Namang said the late political icon would be greatly missed considering his wealth of wisdom and experience. Born in 1938, late Botmang was the two-term deputy to Chief Joshua Dariye from 1999 to 2007.
He also acted for about six months as governor from November 2006 when his boss, chief Dariye was impeached. He acted in that capacity up to April 2007 when Dariye was re-instated on the orders of the Supreme Court. It would be recalled that the second republic governor of the state and pioneer National Chairman of the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Solomon Lar who died in the United States of America, was buried only on December 13, 2013
