Ex-Minister Aisha Alhassan ‘Mama Taraba’ is dead

 

Former Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, popularly known as ‘Mama Taraba’, is dead. She was aged 61.

Report available to RELIABLESOURCENG.COM shows she died at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, having battled a protracted illness in her last years.

Alhassan contested the Taraba 2015 governorship election under the Platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but lost to incumbent Governor Darius Ishaku, who ran on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Shortly after her loss, President Muhammadu Buhari named her Minister of Women Affairs.

READ: Buhari, APC have history of derailing democracy – PDP

However, she left his administration under controversial circumstances as the APC failed to clear her for the 2019 gubernatorial election.

She had resigned her appointment and defected to the United Democratic Party (UDP).

Alhassan’s travails in the APC under the chairmanship of Adams Oshiomhole began when she endorsed ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2019 elections.

Her statement naturally caused a huge embarrassment to the APC leadership, as a cabinet member who preferred an opposition candidate over her party’s candidate.

Atiku eventually contested the 2019 presidential election but lost to Buhari.