Ibrahim Idris, Who Governed Kogi For Nine Years, Has Died At 77

Geo-Political News

Lokoja · Tuesday 22 September 2026

Ibrahim Idris, governor of Kogi State from 2003 to 2012, died in the United Kingdom on Sunday at 77, after what the family describes as a protracted illness. Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, former governor Yahaya Bello and other state officials visited the family's Abuja residence to condole. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and President Tinubu are among those who have responded publicly.

nigerian government building flag quiet Photograph by David Rotimi via Unsplash.

A nine-year tenure in an eight-year system

Idris was elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. His second term was annulled by a court, a fresh election was ordered, he won it, and the arithmetic of the interruption left him in office into 2012. That sequence is one of the clearer illustrations of how Nigerian electoral litigation actually works.

Why that matters beyond the trivia. Nigerian election petitions are decided long after the winner has taken office and started governing. By the time a tribunal rules, the state has a budget, a cabinet and contracts signed in the disputed governor's name. Courts know this, which is part of why re-run orders are rare and why the calendar itself has become an argument in every petition since.

Kogi, then and now

Then	Since
Idris, PDP, 2003 to 2012	Idris Wada, then Yahaya Bello, then Ododo
PDP state	APC state
Confluence agriculture and civil service	The same, plus a steady security problem

Three governors and a change of party in the fourteen years since he left.

Kogi has produced more national political drama per capita than almost any state in Nigeria, and this is where a good deal of it starts.

The condolences worth noticing

Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, whose own fight with the Kogi political establishment has been one of the loudest stories of the past two years, responded publicly. So did Yahaya Bello, who is on the APC list for Kogi Central in 2027. A funeral in Nigerian politics is never only a funeral, particularly four months out from a general election.

Reporting: Vanguard, Businessday, Legit.ng and The Whistler.

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