Abba Kyari, late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, has been laid to rest in Apo Cemetery, Gudu District, Abuja.
Mr Kyari died on Friday after losing the battle against coronavirus.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed the arrival of his corpse for burial at about 10:30 am om Saturday.
“We just received the body of Abba Kyari the deceased Chief of Staff the President in Abuja. In strict observation of the protocol put in place for the burial of Coronavirus victims by the @NCDCgov and the Federal Ministry of Health, the funeral prayer and burial will be private.,” he wrote on Twitter.
And as confirmed by our reporter, the late Chief of Staff has been buried.
According to our KAFTANPost team at the scene, all vehicles leading to Gudu District of Apo have been diverted to enable the solemn ceremony be performed quietly.
The body which has been in possession of medics was flown from Murtala Mohammed Airport presidential wing to the Nnadi Azikiwe International Airport Presidential Wing Abuja and then conveyed in a convoy of vehicles headed to Apo public cemetery Abuja.
Cremation is believed by many as the only hygienic funeral arrangement for victims of COVID-19 but not mandatory.
There are safe and sealed methods medically approved for the hygienic internment of the remains of a COVID-19 and other infectious diseases including Ebola.
Authorities usually leave such a sensitive decision to the bereaved family. Abba Kyari, a devout Moslem from a family which has practised Islam for centuries would not be appropriate for cremation.
This burial today marks the end of a personal life, a chequered career in the academia, law, banking, industry and public service and a pivotal juncture in the increasingly beleaguered administration of President Buhari.
An observer of the shadowy but fierce politics of Abuja commented that today’s internment might have buried the last screws in the wobbly wheels of the Buhari presidency or given the president the intestinal reawakening to find another path to cope in Nigeria’s political and administrative shark tank.
Buhari is said, by someone who claims years of close association to the fierce soldier turned meek politician to be predictably sanguine in adversity and possesses a mien more suited to bad news than the average man.
President Buhari now has to walk on the strength of his own limbs, a sturdy supporting cane has been yanked off his right hand.
Only time knows how the country will feel about today’s extraordinary event enacted ordinarily and briskly at the Apo Cemetery.
