The man supervising the process leading to the sack of over 21,000 primary school teachers in Kaduna state has died.

Andrew Nok, the state’s commissioner of education, died in the early hours of Tuesday.

Details of his death is still sketchy but a source at the Kaduna Government House said the commissioner’s death was sudden.

Mr. Nok, a professor of Biochemistry, has won many national and international awards.

In 2010, he won Nigeria’s highest academic honour, the Nigerian National Order of Merit, in the science category.

His work on the discovery of the gene responsible for sleeping sickness won the NLNG Science Prize in 2009.

He was the 2013 winner of the Alexander von Humboldt prize for science.

The 1983 Biochemistry graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was born at Nok village in Jaba local government of Kaduna state on January 11, 1962.

He taught at his alma mater until his appointment as commissioner in July, 2015.