The remains of late former President Muhammadu Buhari being received at the Katsina Airport
The remains of former President Muhammadu Buhari were yesterday, laid to rest in his compound in Daura, Katsina State, with full military honours, including a 21-gun salute.
Earlier on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu received Buhari’s body at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina, following its arrival from London.
Tinubu arrived at the airport from Abuja at 1:42 p.m. and inspected a guard of honour before the Nigerian Air Force plane conveying the former president’s remains landed at exactly 1:51 p.m.
Former President Buhari passed away on Sunday, July 13, 2025, in a London hospital.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila, Buhari’s wife, Aisha, and other family members accompanied the late president’s remains back to Nigeria.
In a statement, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said that President Tinubu, Vice President Shettima, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea-Bissau, Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine, former President of Niger, Issoufou Mahamadou, and former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, received the casket at the foot of the aircraft.
A joint team of military pallbearers, comprising nine senior officers, laid the casket—draped with the Nigerian flag—on a trolley. The team included Major General Mohammed Usman, Major General Oluwafemi Williams, Major General Shuaibu Nuhu, Rear Admiral Suleiman Dahun, Rear Admiral Jonathan Ajodo, Rear Admiral Samuel Ngatuwa, Air Vice Marshal Adeniyi Herbert Amesinlola, Air Vice Marshal Idi Sanni, and Air Vice Marshal Obinna Obiabaka. The team was coordinated by Major General Mike Alechenu.
The pallbearers wheeled the former leader’s casket in a slow march, in sync with the hymn “God Be With You Till We Meet Again,” passing through a full military guard of honour consisting of six officers and 96 soldiers drawn from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
President Tinubu and others followed the casket trolley in a solemn procession. The pallbearers then escorted the casket into a waiting military hearse for the one-hour journey to Daura, where funeral prayers and the burial ceremony took place. (Nigerian Tribune)
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