Abdulkadir Jeli Abubakar III, the Sokoto State Commissioner of Home Affairs, is dead, The PUNCH reports.

He died on Thursday evening, after a protracted illness.

The late Abubakar, a younger brother to Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, was a former commissioner for information, during Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s first tenure.

Details of his death are still sketchy, as there is no official statement from the Sokoto state government.

The deceased, who was survived by two wives and many children, had been buried according to Islamic rites.