LASIEC Commissioner, Lateef Raji Dies At 54

Alhaji Lateef Raji, a serving Commissioner of Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), is dead.

PM EXPRESS reports that Raji, who was a former Special Adviser on Information and Strategy during the administration of former Governor Babatunde Fashola, was said to have died around 4am Monday at his Magbodo home in Lagos.

He was 54 years old before he died. He will be buried according to Islamic rites later on Monday in his home town in Idoani in Ondo state.

Unconfirmed reports say the late Raji had been in and out of hospital in recent weeks due to cancer of the throat.

Raji, who was appointed a member of LASIEC when Governor Akinwumi Ambode reconstituted the board, was a former Secretary of Action Congress (AC) in Lagos.

According to a PM News report, the former special adviser had been suffering from cancer of the throat for a long time, a disease that kept him from functioning for several months during Fashola administration.

Raji was born in 1963. He attended Irekari Grammar School, Idoani, between 1974 and 1978. He also attended New Church High School, Owo, Ondo State in 1978 and obtained his Ordinary Level School Certificate in 1980.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Lagos in 1997 and also a Master’s degree in the same course from the same University in 2000. Between 1996 and 2000, he worked as an Editor with Ahrada West African Publishing Ltd. and was later elevated to the post of the Editor- in – Chief of the company in which capacity he worked between 2000 and 2003.

He also served as Nigeria’s representative at the World Education Resources Centre, United Kingdom between 2003 and 2007. Between 2007 and 2011, Raji was the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of Thrazel Nigerian Ltd.

A member of many societies and associations, Mr. Raji had written and published many articles on a variety of subjects.

Until his death, he was a doctoral student at the University of Lagos, Yaba, Lagos.