By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lost his mother-in-law.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections announced Hajiya Khadija Aliyu Musdafa’s death on Monday on his verified twitter handle @atiku.
Hajiya Musdafa was the wife of the late Lamido of Adamawa Aliyu Musdafa. Her daughter, Princess Rukaiyatu Atiku Abubakar, daughter of the late Lamido of Adamawa, is Atiku’s third wife,.
They were married in 1983.
Atiku is married to five wives, the first being Amina Titi Atiku Abubakar, a Yoruba, who he married secretly at the young age of 25 in December 1971, at the Ikoyi registry in Lagos, because her family was initially opposed to the union.
In January 1979 he married his second wife, Ladi Atiku Abubakar and married Fatima Atiku Abubakar, his fourth wife, in 1986. He later divorced Ladi, allowing him to marry, as his fourth wife, Jennifer Iwenjora, an Igbo woman, who then became Jamila Atiku-Abubakar.
Announcing the death of his mother-in-law, Atiku wrote, “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing away of my beloved mother-in-law and wife of the late Lamido Aliyu Musdafa, Hajiya Khadija Aliyu Musdafa.
“Hajiya Musdafa was kind and compassionate. On behalf of my family, I express my deepest condolences to the Lamido of Adamawa HRH Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Musdafa and the Musdafa royal family.
“My condolences also go to the government and people of Adamawa state. As she is buried tomorrow in Yola, I pray that the Almighty Allah will forgive her sins and grant her Aljannah Firdaus. Ameen.”