Ex-foreign affairs minister, Maduekwe, dies at 71

By Emeka Nze
Abuja

The recently elected of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe is dead. He passed on at the age of 71.
Chairman, PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jubrin, last night, confirmed this to our correspondent from Saudi Arabia where he is on lesser hajj.
Jubrin said a member of the Maduekwe family, called to confirm the news of the former minister’s demise.
The former foreign affairs minister was said to have developed health challenges aboard aircraft while returning from his daughter’s graduation in the United States of America.
The former Nigerian ambassador to Canada reportedly died on his way to an undisclosed hospital in Abuja.

Reacting to his death, Senator Jubrin said the former transport minister died when the PDP needed him most.
Describing Maduekwe as an intelligent person with the ability to solve knotty issues, Jubrin said he was waiting for him to return from US so that they could put heads together and address the problem bedevilling the party.
The BoT chair, who wished to cut short his trip, however, regretted that the process of the lesser hajj rites had started, promising to use the opportunity of the spiritual exercise to pray for the family as the party mourns him.