Former Rivers State Military Administrator,Col. Dauda Komo,Dies in Port Harcourt

Port Harcourt, Rivers State – Retired Colonel Dauda Musa Komo, who served as the Military Administrator of Rivers State during the turbulent Sani Abacha regime, has passed away. It was reported that Komo died yesterday evening, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Port Harcourt. He was reportedly attending a public event in the Rivers State capital when he suddenly collapsed. The exact cause of his death has not been officially released.

Colonel Komo’s tenure as Military Administrator, from December 1993 to August 1996, was a deeply controversial period in Rivers State history. He took office amidst escalating violence between the Ogoni and Okrika communities over land disputes, coupled with widespread Ogoni protests against the activities of Shell Oil and the environmental degradation of their ancestral lands.

Komo’s administration was characterized by an aggressive response to the unrest. He notably deployed troops to forcefully disperse demonstrations and ordered the arrest of leaders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a prominent environmental and human rights organization.

His time in office is most famously, and tragically, linked to the trial and execution of renowned author and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. These nine individuals were convicted by a military tribunal and subsequently hanged by the Abacha regime on November 10, 1995, a little over a year before Komo was relieved of his duties.

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After the restoration of democratic rule in May 1999, Colonel Komo, like all other former military administrators, was compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Army. In the lead-up to the 2003 Kebbi State governorship elections, he was among those vying for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket, which by agreement was zoned to the Zuru Emirate.

While details surrounding the public event he was attending at the time of his death remain scarce, his passing marks the end of an era for a figure whose time in power left an indelible, and often painful, mark on the history of Rivers State and the Niger Delta. He leaves behind a complex legacy that continues to be debated and analyzed.