Former Managing Director of Daily Times, Ambassador Dele Cole, has died at age 86.

A family source who spoke with Vanguard disclosed that the eminent journalist, died on Saturday morning.

Dele Cole was a Social Democratic Party presidential candidate in the early 1990s.

The deceased was also Nigeria’s ambassador to Argentina and Brazil.

In other news, the Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, has revealed how the lifeless body of former lawmaker, Bello Mandiya, was found about 72 hours after he was last seen.

According to Ningi, Mandiya, who had fallen and hit his head in his bathroom, was already oozing a bad smell before his body was found.

Giving the account of the development during a Senate plenary session while expressing sadness over the death of his former colleague, Senator Ningi said he was in Saudi Arabia when his son called to inform him that Mandiya had been found dead on Monday, September 7, 2026.

According to him, his son was among the people who discovered the former lawmaker’s body after residents became worried about his prolonged absence and the smell coming from his apartment.

Ningi explained that Mandiya was last seen by a colleague at about 11am on Friday, September 4, before returning to his residence, where he lived alone.