BREAKING: Minister of labour is dead

A Minister of Labour passed away at age of 55.

Onyxnews Nigeria reports that Niger’s minister of employment and labour, Mohamed Ben Omar, died on Sunday, May 3, his party, Social Democratic Party (PSD) said.

The cause of his death was not stated by his party.

This reliable online news platform understands that the Minister of Labour died at noon on Sunday at the main hospital of the capital Niamey, the party confirmed.

Speaking on the death of the minister of Labour, the Niger President, Mahamadou Issoufou,  said he learned the news with grief.

The late Minister of Labour, was born on January 1, 1965, as Ben Omar, in the south-central town of Tesker, had led the PSD, which is allied with Issoufou’s Party for Democracy and Socialism.

Ben Omar, who until his death, was Issoufou’s labour minister since 2017, began his political life in 1999 under president Mamadou Tandja, serving in parliament or in various ministerial roles in the poor Sahel nation.

In 2009, the late Minister of Labour wholeheartedly supported a constitutional amendment that allowed Tandja to prolong his second term by three years, but a military junta overthrew Tandja the following February.

Before Ben Omar created the PSD, he was part of the Rally for Democracy and Progress, the party of Tandja’s predecessor Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, who was assassinated in 1999 by members of his own bodyguard.