A former presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa, is dead.

Tofa, according to family sources, died at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) in the early hours of Monday after a brief illness.

Born on June 20, 1947, Tofa died 29 years after contesting and losing the June 12, 1993 presidential election to late Chief Mashood Abiola, an election widely acknowledged as one of the freest polls in the country, but was annulled by the military junta of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

Tofa is expected to be buried in Kano today in line with Islamic rites.