The Director General of The Electoral Institute of Independent National Electoral Commission, EI, Professor Abubakar Momoh has died in Abuja and is expected to be buried in Auchi, Edo State according to Islamic injunction.

Momoh, in his lifetime, was a close friend of the former governor of Ekiti State and current Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi and former Secretary to the Edo State Government, Professor Julius Ihonvbere

According to information gathered, the astute professor of political science passed on this morning after a brief illness and as at the time of filing this report, his body is on the way to his Auchi hometown for burial.

Abubakar lost his father earlier in the year.

However, the academic community has been thrown into mourning as his colleagues at the University of Ibadan who got the rude shock of his demise described his death as a monumental loss to Nigeria.

Until his appointment, Professor Momoh was the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Lagos State University, LASU.

He obtained his PhD in Political Theory and started his Lecturing career in 1988. He has served on various Boards and scientific committees including those of the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, and Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA.

According to his bio-data obtained from African Leadership Centre, Momoh was Vice President of African Association of Political Science, AAPS, and National Treasurer, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, 1991-1995.

He has been a researcher and lecturer at many universities across the world, including being Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland; Fellow, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden; Visiting Scholar, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Guest Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden; Guest Lecturer, Summer Course on African Law, Catholic University, Brussels, Belgium; Senior Fulbright Scholar, James Coleman African Studies Centre, University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA; Guest Lecturer, African and African-American Studies Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA; Visiting Researcher and Tutor, Conflict, Security and Development Group, CSDG, King’s College, University of London; and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, International Development Centre, Open University, Milton Keynes, England, Post Graduate Research Supervisor, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, German, among others.

Momoh has served as External Examiner to the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa and Nigerian Defence College, NDC since 2005.

Momoh has also served on several government technical committees including being member and coordinator of “Foreign Policy” Subcommittee of Federal Republic of Nigeria “Vision 20:20” Technical Committee; he was also a member of the team that drafted the policy on “Peace Support Operations, PSOS, for the Federal Government.

Momoh has also been on several technical teams of the African Union Commission, AUC, and most recently was involved in designing the African Governance Architecture, AGA, and Elections Bench-marking for the African Union.

He has also served as election Observer to several African countries on behalf of ECOWAS and African Union. He has also served as Election Observer to some European countries.

He is survived by a wife and a son.