Sani Dangote (1959/60 – 14 November 2021) was a Nigerian businessman. He was the younger brother of the wealthiest person in Africa, Aliko Dangote and vice president of the family-run

Dangote Group The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote. It is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent. The group employs more than 30,000 people, generat ...

. He died on 14 November 2021 in the United States from

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

Personal life

Dangote had a wife and eight children, in addition to three brothers:

Aliko Aliko ( sq-definite, Alikoi; ) is a village and a former Communes of Albania, commune in Vlorë County, southern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Finiq. Besides the village Aliko from which ...

, the wealthiest person in Africa; Bello, who died in a plane crash alongside the son of the military

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (; (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his death in 1998. Abacha's seiz ...

in 1996; and Garba, who died in 2013 after a stroke.

Legal issues

In September 2014, 20 of Dangote's bank accounts were temporarily frozen by the High Court of Lagos State after an alleged failure to pay back a ₦5.2 billion loan from the

Union Bank of Nigeria Union Bank of Nigeria Plc is a commercial bank in Nigeria headquartered in Marina, Lagos Island, Lagos. It has been operating in Nigeria since 1917. Overview Union Bank is a large commercial bank, serving individuals, small and medium-sized comp ...

for his companies Dansa Foods Limited and Bulk Pack Services Limited. Union Bank asserted that he had been pressuring banks into honouring cheques to deplete the funds and divert them to foreign banks in Canada, Switzerland and the UAE to avoid paying the debt. In 2015, Union Bank took steps toward seizing Dansa Foods Limited and its assets. In 2016, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria took over both companies to help pay off the debts. In August 2018, Dangote was implicated in a lawsuit against his company, MPS Nigeria Limited, by an Italian contractor after an alleged

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...

. Being accused of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

, Dangote was alleged to not have paid salaries and to have withheld the contractor's passport for two years. The case was dismissed by the court due to inconsistent evidence. The contractor's passport was returned two months later in October after intervention from Nigerian authorities.

Illness and death

Before his death, Dangote travelled to the United States to receive treatment for

. On 14 November 2021, at the age of 61, he died from the illness at

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Academic health science center, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an O ...

Weston, Florida Weston is a master-planned City (Florida), city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County, Florida, United States. The population was 68,107 at the time of the 2020 census. Located just west of Fort Lauderdale and to the northwest of Miami, th ...

. His funeral, initially set to take place on 16 November in

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria *Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State ** Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries ** Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom betwee ...

, was delayed until the 17th due to paperwork issues resulting in his body not being returned to Nigeria. After prayers were held at the palace of the

emir of Kano The Kano Emirate was a Muslim state in northern Nigeria formed in 1805 during the Fulani jihad when the Muslim Hausa-led Sultanate of Kano was deposed and replaced by a new emirate which became a vassal state of the Sokoto Caliphate. During an ...

, he was buried at a family estate in Kano. Present at his burial were his brother

, two previous senate presidents Ahmad Lawan and

Bukola Saraki Abubakar Bukola Saraki (; born on 19 December 1962) is a Nigerian politician who served as the 13th president of the Nigerian Senate from 2015 to 2019. He was elected the President of Nigeria’s 8th Senate on 9 June 2015 under the All Progr ...

, and governor of Borno State

Babagana Umara Zulum Babagana Umara Zulum mni (born 25 August 1969) is a Nigerian professor and politician who has served as governor of Borno State since 2019 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Early life and education Zulum was born on 2 ...

, among others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dangote, Sani 20th-century births 2021 deaths 21st-century Nigerian businesspeople Businesspeople from Kano State Businesspeople from Kano Dantata family