By Folorunso Alagbede
One time Senator, Gbenga Aluko, who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), between 1999 and 2003, is dead.
Gbenga, son of late Professor Sam Aluko reportedly collapsed and died , in Abuja at the weekend.
The late Senator represented Ekiti South Senatorial zone in the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly.
He was the only PDP Senator in the SouthWest while the others were elected on the platform of the then Alliance for Democracy, AD.
He was also a former governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State.
Aged 58, the Ode-Ekiti-born politician was said to have died on Saturday,, a family source said, was rushed to a hospital where he passed on.
The source said that Aluko was not sick, stressing however that he may have died as a result of heart attack.
Aluko is married to Sileola and the couple have five children, including the footballers Eniola and Sone.
Daniel Olugbenga Aluko was born on 20 July 1963, to Professor Sam Aluko, a prominent Nigerian Economist from Ekiti State of Nigeria.
He attended Federal Government College, Ilorin, and then was admitted to the University of Benin, graduating in 1982 with a degree in Geography and Regional Planning.
He went on to the College of Energy and Petroleum Studies, Oxford, England for a Post Graduate Course in International Oil Trading and Pricing. Positions held between 1983 and 1999 included Managing Director/CEO of HYGYNIX, Executive Director of Baseline Petroleum and Chemicals and Executive Chairman of Independent Strategists. He was appointed Special Assistant to the Minister of Transport and Aviation and General Manager of Nigeria Shipper’s Council from 1993 to 1995.
After taking his seat in the Senate in June 1999, Aluko was appointed to committees on Selection, Senate Services (vice chairman), Aviation, Women Affairs, Finance & Appropriation, Social Development & Sports and Local and Foreign Debts.
He was appointed Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate and was later appointed Vice Chairman of the Gas Committee and Chairman of the Petroleum Committee. Aluko was opposed to plans to privatize the Nigerian Mint.
He was appointed Chairman of an ad hoc committee to investigate the controversial closure of Savannah Bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria. In September 2002, he seconded a motion to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate alleged constitutional and budgetary breaches committed by President Olusegun Obasanjo, which could be grounds for impeachment.
In October 2002, Aluko replaced Oserheimen Osunbor as Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In another development, a former Clerk to the Senate and House of Representatives, Alhaji Umaru Sani, is dead.
Sani, according to sources, close to sources, died at the National Hospital Saturday night from a brief illness.
He was billed for burial yesterday (Sunday, November 21, 2021) at the Gudu cemetery in accordance with Muslim rites.
While he worked for the National Assembly, Sani also oversaw the Department of Finance and Supplies as director.
He was appointed into the board of the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, after retirement.
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