A week after the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu passed on, his sixth son Mustapha Audu, has revealed details of how the popular politician passed on. In a recent interview with Daily Sun, Mustapha also dismissed insinuations that his father was poisoned.
“The truth about it is that my father was a very hard working man. Throughout the period of the campaign, he used to go to bed about 4-5am and by 7 or 8am, he was always up, travelling here and there, holding several meetings, taking no rest and eating no food.
“This was a man who had ulcer and was hardly eating. This began to tell on him on the Friday night before his demise. He became weak even though he was a very strong man. We had advised him to go to hospital in Abuja but he said no, that the election was very important, very significant and that no one would vote for him by proxy. He said he had to be accredited to vote for himself and ensure that things went right. So we supported him.
“But that night, he grew very weak. So we had to invite a doctor who quickly placed him on an infusion. On Saturday morning he felt better. And we said okay, let us delay going for accreditation since it would be concluded at 1pm. Maybe at 12.45pm we would go there. That concluded, we returned to the place (his elder brother’s place as the traditional ruler of the community) and waited. We later went to the polling booth and he voted. He was up and about, he didn’t rest. He didn’t know the meaning of rest; he didn’t know the meaning of laziness. He was always on the move. Even at night time he was always very busy.
“That night he was asking if he had been declared winner. He knew he never lost in an election. The previous PDP administrations rigged him out consistently in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2011. But this time around, he knew that the central government would not tolerate that. So he was sure to carry the day.
“So that night, he was stressed out, having had very little sleep. At 7.45am, he passed on. He knew about his victory even before he passed on. The last instruction he gave me before his death was to tell my younger sister, Hajia Halima to go straight to the INEC collation centre to ensure that there was no form of rigging going on there. That was how she became the APC representative at the venue. That was the last instruction he gave me. He said, “Make sure that my victory is defended; make sure that the results are declared,”
Speaking further, Mustapha said: “I too had a little command centre I was running. So we were getting the results that were coming in. even that night, he was always asking me whether they had declared him winner. He was very optimistic about his victory. He knew he had won; he had no doubt about it.
“He was a hard fighter; he died fighting. In fact, he was one of the greatest fighters I ever saw. You could see what happened during his funeral. I don’t think any Head of State has ever attracted that number of dignitaries like he did.
“He was a man so well loved. You recall that there was this rumour that he had risen from the dead. You needed to see what was happening. People were dancing; people were jubilating, jumping up and hugging themselves and shouting, God is great, La ilaha illa Allah. The reason was that people loved him, because he gave his all to the people. He was after the advancement of his people.
“We his children know that his shoes are too big for anyone to step into. We all will see what we can do too for the state because he was a legend.”
Mustapha described his father’s death as the will of God.
“As Muslims, we don’t think about that. We don’t habour the thought that he was murdered by anyone. We don’t believe that anyone had a hand in his death. Once one dies, one is buried. Even if one was shot a million times, if God does not permit that, it would not happen. God said it was his time to die and he died. My father was the greatest man I knew, he always called it as he saw it; he was honest. He was straight as an arrow,” Mustapha added.