Hir Joseph
18 November 2008
Makurdi — The final internment for the Benue State Commissioner for Rural Development and Cooperatives, Dr. Atoato Girgi who passed on penultimate week in Jos took place yesterday.
A weeping Governor Gabriel Suswam told a large gathering of sympathizers in Ushongo, the home of the late commissioner that; "If death asked me who should leave, I was not going to point at Dr. Girgi. But you see, God takes away the good ones so that they do not live too long for those of us who are corrupt to spoil them."
The late commissioner who turned 50 shortly before he passed on, died at the Jos University Teaching Hospital where he was rushed to after he had a simple fracture at a novelty football match with members of a keep fit exercise team at the Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi.
Suswam recalled how he was awoken from sleep in Abuja by one of his orderlies over the incident. "I couldn't believe the story. I thought I was still sleeping, I thought I was dreaming. So my orderly left when he saw that I merely dosed off with the news."
The governor said he was able to gather himself to understand that he was given news in real life, and not dreaming. "I called back my orderly to repeat what I heard him say. I was broken down after he repeated the news. I couldn't carry myself. It was a rude shock and I recovered from it only after a while. I then made calls Jos and Sam Ode explained everything me. He also linked me to the doctor who gave me details", the governor said.
Girgir who was before his appointment, a lecturer at the Benue State University (BSU) was the brain behind the Benue State reform team that developed the State Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS) before Governor Suswam drafted him into his executive council to add his technical touch to the administration.
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