Former Akwa Ibom governor, Idongesit Nkanga, dies of COVID-19

The Chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and former military administrator of Akwa Ibom State, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, is dead.

A family source confirmed this to Channels Television on Friday in Uyo, the state capital.

He disclosed that Nkanga, aged 68, died of complications related to COVID-19 on Christmas Eve.

Nkanga served as the military administrator of Akwa Ibom State from September 1990 to January 1992, during the regime of former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida.

He retired as an Air Commodore in the Nigerian Air Force.

As the chairman of PANDEF, Nkanga was vocal in the campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria and the development of the country’s Niger Delta region.

In May 2001, he became a member of the board of the Cooperative Development Bank before he emerged as the governorship candidate of the defunct Nigeria Democratic Party (NDP) in the 2003 general elections.

Nkanga was later appointed as the Chairman of the Akwa Ibom Airport Implementation Committee in 2007 and became a member of the South-South Elders and Leaders’ Forum in January 2010.

He was also appointed as the director-general for the campaign organisation of former Governor Godswill Akpabio in 2011, as well as the Director-General for Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Campaign Organisation in 2015 and 2019 respectively. (Channels TV)