Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assemby, Haruna Tsokwa, died this morning of an undisclosed ailment, a report from the state capita, Jalingo said.

He was said to have taken ill last Thursday and was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre in Jalingo, where he gave up the ghost.

Tsokwa is remembered as a staunch supporter of the acting state governor, Garuba Umar, and one of those in the forefront of the campaign for the abdication of Governor Danbaba Suntai, who has yet to fully recover from injuries sustained when the small plane he was piloting crashed on October 25 last year. The power tussle is still on-going.

Tsokwa escaped death on September 19 when he was ambushed by unknown gunmen along Jos-Abuja road, in which some of the policemen travelling with him sustained gunshot wounds. The late Speaker attended Federal University of Technology, Yola.

•Photo shows the late Tsokwa.