President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Senator Tari Sekibo, is dead.
He was aged 70.
He was elected the INC President on March 16 this year.
Prior to his death, Sekibo was a prominent indigene of Okrika community in Rivers State and Chairman of the Unified Okrika Divisional Council of Chiefs.
He was elected to the Senate in the aborted Third Republic.
In 1998, the Federal Government honoured him with a National Award as the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR).
A source claimed that Sekibo slumped in Government House, Bayelsa State, shortly after he arrived for a meeting with the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson.
Others dismissed such claims as unfounded and mischievous
But the source who pleaded anonymity said officials of the state government were receiving the visitor and some members of his Executive Council when he collapsed.
It was learnt that he held his chest with his hand when he fell, leading to speculations that he must have suffered a cardiac arrest.
He was supposed to meet with Dickson at 3pm.
He was immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, few meters away from the Government House.
He was pronounced dead by doctors with his remains deposited in the hospital mortuary.