A former speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Zakawanu Garuba, is dead, Igbere TV reports. The deceased is a chieftain of the PDP in Edo.
Igbere TV gathered that Hon. Garuba died Saturday morning after a brief illness. He is rumoured to have died of Coronavirus complications.
A friend of the deceased told Igbere TV that the former speaker died at an Isolation Centre. “Oga died at the Isolation Centre,” the source said.
Hon. Zakawanu Garuba was impeached as Speaker of the Edo Assembly on February 23, 2010, alongside his deputy by 16 members of the 24-member House.
The then ruling Adams Oshiomhole-led Action Congress (now defunct) in Edo had been locked in a supremacy battle with PDP, who had majority lawmakers in the Assembly.
A native of Etsako West local government area of Edo State, Garuba, was called to Bar in 1990 having bagged a bachelor of law degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
After his mandatory one-year national service in 1990, he embarked on a legal career that was to span a total of 21 eventful years.
In 2003, Garuba was elected into the Edo State House of Assembly. While in the House, he served as the chairman of the House committee on judiciary, human rights and legal matters, as well as memberships of other committees – before emerging, in 2007, as Speaker of the House.
He was, in 2012, appointed into the board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to serve as the Executive Commissioner, Finance and Administration (now known as the corporate services directorate of the commission).
Igbere TV reports that Hon. Garuba holds the traditional titles of Oshiote of Auchi Kingdom and Okumagbe of Uzaire – both in Edo North senatorial districts of Edo state.
May his soul rest in peace!
