Michael Ibru, a renowned Nigerian businessman, is dead.

Mr. Ibru, the patriarch of the Ibru family and the Otota of Agbarha-Otor kingdom, Delta State, was said to have passed on peacefully at a medical facility in the United States in the early hours of Tuesday, September 6, according to a statement by the family.

He was 86.

The late Mr. Ibru, an Officer of the Federal Republic, was the head of the Ibru Organization, with flourishing business interest in fish trading, tourism, timber and poultry.

His wife, Cecilia Ibru, was the former managing director of the defunct Oceanic Bank.

The governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, in his condolence message to the family, said the late Mr. Ibru played a role in the creation of the state.

“The Urhobo Nation and indeed Deltans have lost a great man who was indeed a pride to Deltans,” Governor Okowa said in a statement released by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu.

“He will be sorely missed by all and sundry whose lives he affected in many several ways. I therefore urge all who mourn the demise of Olorogun Michael Ibru to take solace in the fact that his was a life of great accomplishments in which we give thanks to the Almighty God for the indelible footprints of his achievements in the sands of time,” the statement added.