The acting director general of the National Centre for Women Development, Abdulmalik Dauda, has died. He reportedly died in a road accident along Kaduna-Abuja expressway on Friday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

Dauda took over from the former head of the women centre, Onyeka Onwenu, who was removed alongside 25 other heads of government agencies early in the year.

However, the Minister of Women Affairs, the parent body of the centre, Aisha Alhassan, had announced that Dauda died after a brief illness.

The minister took to her Facebook page to announce the death.

“The Honourable Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Senator Aisha Alhassan announces with sorrow, the death of the acting Director General of the National Centre for women Development, Mal Abdulmalik Daudu. He passed on after a brief illness,” the post read.

Dauda was born on August 27, 1959 in Niger State and left behind two wives and five children.