 One of the leading candidates in the 1993 presidential election, Alaji Bashir Tofa, is dead. He was 74 years old. He was the presidential candidate of the Defund National Republican Convention and a major challenger of MKO Biola's in the controversial June 12, 1993 presidential election, honored by the military government of General Ibrahim Bangidar. The sources said the former presidential candidate died in an early hours of Monday after a protracted illness. Details of his death were still sketchy as at the time of filing this report. During the Third Republic, he was part of the Libro Movement, which met him a force to Libro Convention when he was not registered as a political party. Tofa joined NRC in 1990 and in 1993, when the Bangidar administration introduced the Option A4 system, Tofa was elected presidential candidate representing Kano.