Abubakar Habu Hashidu

Alhaji Abubakar Habu Hashidu (10 April 1944 – 27 July 2018) was a Nigerian politician and technocrat who served as the first elected civilian Governor of Gombe State on the APP/ANPP platform from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2003. Born in Hashidu village, Dukku LGA. Pre-political career as a Federal Minister under Babangida (Water Resources, then Agriculture and Rural Development) and member of Abacha's Vision 2010 Committee; instrumental in the 1996 creation of Gombe State. His governorship was characterised by efforts to foster unity among Gombe's diverse populations and people-oriented projects; he conceded defeat gracefully to PDP's Goje in 2003 (praising INEC and accepting the result without contestation), and re-contested under DPP in 2007 (losing again to Goje). **The substantive corruption matter:** in **June 2003** a Gombe State Government transition committee report alleged that the outgoing Hashidu administration had misappropriated state resources during the 1999–2003 tenure; Hashidu publicly denied the allegations through his director of press Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, offered to face the anti-corruption commission or any probe panel, and counter-alleged that the committee had failed to expose PDP chieftains who benefited during his administration. **No formal EFCC / ICPC charge or arraignment resulted from these allegations.** Recommend `alleged` archive status with the substantive event being the inter-administration transition-committee allegation; the contemporaneous March 2007 campaign-violence arrest (during which armed supporters stormed the magistrate's court and freed him, wounding the presiding judge) is contextual political history, not a corruption finding, and should not be conflated with corruption-archive status. Hashidu died on 27 July 2018 at his home in Gombe; President Buhari praised his "wealth of experience and innovative thinking," and Babangida described him as a "technocrat per excellence" who accepted the will of the people. Survived by