FORMER MILITARY GOVERNOR OF RIVERS, ANTHONY UKPO IS DEAD
Former Military Governor of Rivers State, Brigadier General Anthony Ukpo, who was also a former Information Minister during General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime is dead.
Brigadier General Ukpo, who was born in Okpoma, Yala, Cross River State on 16 July 1947, died early Monday morning in a hospital as a result of a prolonged illness.
Ukpo was Governor of Rivers State from August 1986 until July 1988. Joining the army, he was appointed Company Commander (1968), Battalion Commander (1969 and 1971 – 1973), Brigade Major (1970) and Instructor, Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna (1973–1974).
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He was a member of the inner circle of army officers who arranged the bloodless coup on 27 August 1985 when General Muhammadu Buhari was replaced by General Ibrahim Babangida.
After the coup he was appointed a member of the AFRC. He was appointed deputy director, Defence Intelligence Agency (1985). On 12 September 1985 he was sworn in as Minister of Information and Culture.
He was appointed military governor of Rivers State on 26 August 1986. In this post, he inaugurated the provisional council of the Rivers State Polytechnic.
He reassigned to become principal staff officer to President Ibrahim Babangida in July 1988. In this role in April 1990 Ukpo told reporters that 10 officers and more than 150 soldiers from the lower ranks had been arrested in an attempted coup attempt against Babangida. He was retired as a Brigadier.
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