PAP mourns first African Harvard graduate, Prof. Ekpebu

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The Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), has paid tributes to Prof. Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu, renowned scholar and diplomat, who died on January 2, 2022.

Ekpebu, who died at 86, was the first African graduate of Harvard University in the United States. Dikio, while paying a condolence visit to the family of the deceased in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, described the late Ekpebu as a pride of the Niger Delta.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Nneotaobase Egbe, he said that as an illustrious academic and diplomat, Ekpebu distinguished himself in all endeavours, especially in service to Nigeria.

He said: “Our departed Prof. Lawrence Ekpebu was an accomplished scholar, diplomat and public administrator. His death is a big and painful loss to the Ijaw nation, Bayelsa State, Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.”

“He would be remembered for many positive things, especially his distinguished service to Nigeria and that is why we are so proud of him. We thank God for his life and times.

“I came here today to condole with his family, on behalf of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. I urged them to be strong and take solace in the fact that he lived a life worthy of emulation.”