COVID-19: Edo Ex-Speaker, Zakawanu Garuba Dies

A former speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Zakawanu Garuba, is dead. The deceased is a chieftain of the PDP in Edo.

According to source Hon. Garuba died on Saturday morning after a brief illness. He is rumoured to have died of Coronavirus complications.

A friend of the deceased, who craved anonymity, revealed that the former Edo speaker died at an Isolation Centre. “Oga died at the Isolation Centre,” the source said.

Hon. Zakawanu Garuba was impeached as the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly on February 23, 2010, alongside his deputy by 16 members of the 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 of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1990, Hon. Garuba 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.

May his soul Rest In Peace!