The first Military Governor of North-Western State in Nigeria Usman Faruk has passed on at the age of 85.
Usman, a retired Commissioner of Police, was governor of the dedunct North-western State from 1967 to 1975 after it was split from the old Northern Region under then Military Head of State General Yakubu Gowon.
Born in 1935 in Gombe, late Usman Faruk was among the first police officers to be enlisted into the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID), and was later moved to
what was called the X-squad, which served
the undercover arm of the department, which later became the Department of State Services (DSS).
He was indicted and dismissed from office by General Murtala Mohammed, who took power in a coup on 29 July 1975, over alleged corrupt enrichment.
Faruk was however cleared of all charges, reinstated and given full benefits by the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida regime.
Usman Faruk, Jarman Gombe, has also authored many books including on the Nigerian civil war and the 1966 coup.
