The remains of a former Minister of Women Affairs and Child Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, will arrive in Jalingo, Taraba State from Cairo, Egypt on Sunday (today) for burial, the family has said.
Alhasaan died on Friday in Cairo after a protracted illness.
Alhassan’s media aide, Mr Bala Muhammed, told journalists in Jalingo that the remains of the deceased would arrive in her hometown of Jalingo on Sunday morning and that the burial would take place in the evening of the same day around 5pm at the Muslims’ cemetery in Jalingo.
According to Muhammed, funeral prayers will take place at the Emir of Muri’s Palace in Jalingo.
Since her death, hundreds of sympathisers had been throngeing the family house of the two-time Taraba governorship candidate to pay their last respects.
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on Saturday, extolled the late former minister as a woman who believed in hard work, excellence and service to humanity, while describing her death as shocking and depressing.
In a condolence message titled ‘Fayemi mourns the death of ex-minister Aisha Alhassan’ issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, Fayemi said the deceased worked her way to the top of her professional calling through diligence and positive attitude.
He stated that Alhassan’s commitment to serving humanity was responsible for her huge influence among the Taraba people, who nicknamed her Mama Taraba, and gave her the opportunity of representing them in the Senate.
He said though the deceased trained as a lawyer, she was best known as a politician whose reputation spread beyond the length and breadth of her home state.
The governor recalled his working relationship with the former minister when they both served as members of the Federal Executive Council.
He added that she was a “pacesetter and good ambassador of the womenfolk, having served as the first female Taraba State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the first woman to be appointed as Secretary, FCT Judicial Council.”
Copyright PUNCH.
