By The Statistician-General of the Federation and Head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Simon Harry is dead.
According to The Punch, the NBS Director of Communication and Public Relations Department, Ichedi Joel confirmed the development on Wednesday.
Harry was said to have breathed his last after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Efforts by medical doctors to save him proved abortive, according to reports.
His death comes barely 48 hours after speculations surfaced online that he was dead — a claim which was debunked by the agency.
“The fact of the matter is that the Statistician General was slightly indisposed on Saturday and following medication is now recuperating.
“We are well certain that he would, in a matter of a few days, be back to his desk and continue his work in repositioning the NBS as the foremost national statistics agency in Africa and among the best globally,” the agency had said statement on Sunday.
Harry’s civil service career began when he joined the Federal Office of Statistics as Statistician 11 in 1992. He would later rise through the ranks to become a substantive Director of Statistics in 2019.
In August 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Harry as the Statistician-General of the Federation to succeed Mr Yemi Kale.
