President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a high level government delegation to Bauchi State to commiserate with the people and family of the late Senator representing Bauchi South, Ali Wakili.
The president who sent the delegation on Sunday had earlier sent a condolence message and made personal telephone calls to the wives of the deceased.
Wakili died in Abuja on Saturday and was buried the same day.
Many have described the late senator as one of the president’s strongest supporters.
According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the delegation which was led by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, was made up of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Musa Bello, and the Minister of State, Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Sulaiman Hassan.
Others in the delegation were three Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) to the President, Sarki Abba, Ya’u Darazo and Garba Shehu as well as the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Mr. Jalal Arabi.
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In separate letters delivered to the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwan Adamu, and the elder brother of the late senator, Alhaji Mohammed Wakili, President Buhari said he received the news of the sudden death of Senator Wakili with great shock and sadness.
“By common consent, Senator Ali Wakili was a noted and indefatigable member of the Senate who lived a simple yet purposeful life, and to the end, he played politics of commitment to a cause. There is no doubt he would be remembered as a capable and principled representative of his Senatorial District and the people of Nigeria,” the president noted.
President Buhari recalled that barely 24 hours earlier, he had been with the late Senator at a wedding event in Kano and, as he narrated, “he (Senator Wakili) looked so full of life.”
He then prayed for the repose of the soul of the deceased, saying, “I pray to God to forgive him and cover him with his mercy and grace.”
