Ex-Cross River deputy governor, Offoboche, is dead

Former Deputy Governor of Cross River State in the Second Republic, Chief Matthias Offoboche (OON), is dead.
The octogenarian elder statesman, who was deputy to the late Chief Clement Isong, former governor of the state on the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), died on October 25.
Mrs Juliana Offoboche, wife of the deceased and former Director of Public Prosecution in Cross River, confirmed the death of her husband on Tuesday.
Although she declined to give details of what caused the death of her husband, Mrs Offoboche told newsmen that the deceased had some health challenges since August.
“Yes, it is true. He often gave us some premonition of his death. He would urge us to hurry up to complete any task he wanted done by jokingly telling us: `hurry up, I may not be here. But he did not die in London last week as speculated.
“Who took him there? Did they take him there? I am presently in his house in Abuja, devastated. Surely, we will get back to you,’’ she said.
Offoboche, who until death was a PDP chieftain, had been campaigning for the creation of Ogoja State and power shift to the Northern Senatorial District of Cross River.
He studied Medicine in Dublin and did postgraduate course in the Royal College of Physicians, London.
He was a specialist Obstetrician Gynecologist, a politician and an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).