Oguta-born maverick Second Republic politician, Senator Arthur Nzeribe, is dead.
He was aged 83.
A reliable source close to the family on Sunday afternoon said the politician died in a foreign hospital.
Nzeribe was the Senator who represented the Imo Orlu constituency of Imo State from May 1999 to May 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
In 2017, one Collins Ughala who identified himself as Nzeribe’s Chief Press Secretary, had said he was “hale and hearty and not struck by stroke, as being suggested in some quarters.”
The statement had read, “The attention of Chief Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe has been drawn to the hateful speeches going on against him in the media, especially the social media, including the unfounded rumour that he has a stroke.
“Chief Nzeribe should have ignored this hateful rumour, but to set the record straight, this brief response is offered to the effect that the rumour is false, as I don’t have a stroke.”
“At 79 years old, I am hale and hearty and not suffering from a stroke. I am not in my community, Oguta, in Imo State. I am resting in my house in Abuja. And I thank God for keeping me healthy and allowing me see old age.
“Life and death are in God’s hands, and God willing, I will remain hale and hearty and not suffer a stroke until such a time when God calls me home. And no amount of hateful speech can change or alter God’s plans for me or anyone else.
“I am not suffering from stroke and I cannot wish anyone to suffer stroke. But to those manufacturing and spreading this hateful speech against me, I wish them the best.
“God has deemed it fit for me to see old age in good health, and there is nothing more to ask from God.”
Nzeribe was born on November 2 , 1938, in Oguta Imo State.