Alex Ibru dies at 66

Lagos - The Chairman and Publisher of The Guardian, Chief Alex Ibru, is dead. The deceased died on the day his wife, Maiden, was marking her birthday. According to a statement by the newspaper, Ibru gave up the ghost at about 2.30pm yesterday. Aged 66, the deceased had been sick for a while.

Born on March 1, 1945, Ibru, the youngest of the famous Ibru brothers who hailed from Agbhara-Otor, in today’s Delta State was noted for entrepreneurship.

He attended the Yaba Methodist Primary School (1951-1957), Ibadan Grammar  School (1958-1960), Igbobi College, Lagos (1960-1963) and the University of Trent (formerly Trent Polytechnic) (1967-1970) where he studied Business Economics. After working briefly in the family business under the tutelage of his older brother and patriarch, Michael Ibru, Alex Ibru launched solely and soon became one of the most successful young businessmen in the country.

He founded The Guardian in 1983 with a mission to make it one of the five best English language newspapers in the world. Ibru was the chairman of Trinity Foundation, the vehicle through which he did his massive philanthropy, giving support to the poor and the needy. He was also the founder of the Ibru Centre which promotes ecumenism and religious harmony.

The deceased was a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club International. He was minister of Internal Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and member of the highest Provisional Ruling Council (PRC), between 1993 and 1995. As minister, he introduced far-reaching reforms in the management of Nigeria’s prisons and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

He left the late Gen. Sani Abacha-led government on principle, after which an attempt was made on his life, allegedly on the orders of the ruling junta. The case on that attempted murder had been moved to Supreme Court.

 Source: Leadership.ng