The remains of former Commander of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), late Major General Timothy Mai Shelpidi, has been laid to rest late Tuesday in his hometown, Boh in Shomgom Local Government Area of Gombe state.
Born on September 4, 1948, General Shelpidi died on March 2, 2018 at the age of 70, after a protracted illness at a hospital in Abuja.
In 2004, Shelpidi survived an assassination attempt, when unknown gunmen stormed his Abuja residence and shot him several times.
He was commissioned into the Nigeria Army as member of the 3rd Regular Course in 1970.
After serving the army meritoriously, in January 1998 he was appointed as Commander of the ECOMOG, a multilateral West African peace keeping force in Sierra Leone.
He voluntary retired in 1999, after he served the nation for 29 years, at the rank of Major General.
In his speech at the funeral ceremony, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, described late Shelpidi as a war hero that served his state and the country diligently.
“The state has lost a great son who played a key role in the creation of Gombe state in 1996. He is worthy of emulation in all ramifications and was a detribalize Nigerian who treated everyone equally irrespective of tribe or religion,” he said.
Dankwambo said the state executive council will look on how to immortalise the late General Timothy Shelpidi.
The late General Shelpidi was among the influential military officers instrumental to the creation of Gombe state during the regime of former Head of State, Late General Sani Abacha in October 1996.
General Shelpidi joined politics in 2003 and contested for the gubernatorial seat in the 2003 elections under the platform of the National Democratic Party (NDP).
He was one time Nigeria’s Ambassador to Russia with concurrent accreditation to the Republic of Belarus and Georgia from 2008 to 2011.
He was survived by wife, aged mother, children and grandchildren.