Ado Abdullahi Bayero, the Emir of Kano and one of Nigeria's most prominent Islamic leaders, has died.
Palace and state government sources told the AFP news agency on Friday that Bayero died after a long battle with cancer.
Palace and state government sources told the AFP news agency on Friday that Bayero died after a long battle with cancer.
Bayero, who with the Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu of Borno was part of the triumvirate of influential traditional monarchs in the Muslim-majority north, had been emir since 1963.
The Kano and Borno clerics had previously survived assassination attempts by Boko Haram
insurgents angered by what they saw as their betrayal of Islam for submitting to the authority of Nigeria's secular government.
Bayero had kept a low-profile recently because of his illness.
He was to be buried according to Islamic rites later on Friday
He was to be buried according to Islamic rites later on Friday