Yakubu Bako

Who is Yakubu Bako?

Colonel Yakubu Bako was governor of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria from December 1993 to August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha.

Bako graduated from La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982. He served as a major in the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Iran after the Iran–Iraq War, which was in place from 1988 to 1991. After being appointed Akwa Ibom administrator in December 1993, Bako developed infrastructure in the Bakassi area, later forcibly claimed by Cross River State.

In December 1997 he was jailed for alleged complicity in a coup to overthrow Sani Abacha. In March 1998 he was among 26 who had been charged with treason, a capital offence, or related offences. In March 1999 he was granted clemency and released. He and others were pardoned by President Olusegun Obasanjo in September 2003.