For his erstwhile subjects who still somehow hoped that the news was untrue, the reality of the death of Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, the man who held sway as Kaduna State Governor until late afternoon of last Saturday, finally hit home as his body arrived the state this afternoon.

Tears flowed freely as the former governor’s body, inside a casket draped in Nigeria’s national colours of green-white-green, touched down at Kaduna Airport around 2:30 p.m. in a C-130 Air Force plane with registration number CAG.

His successor and erstwhile deputy, Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, led Yakowa’s family members, service chiefs, top politicians, religious leaders and traditional rulers to receive the remains of the fallen politician widely acknowledged as an achiever and a man of peace.

News Express recalls that the sun suddenly set for Yakowa on his way from Nembe, where he had graced the burial of Pa Douglas Obebara, father of Oronto Douglas, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Research, Documentation and Strategy.

The naval helicopter conveying him, former National Security Adviser Gen. Andrew Owoeye Azazi (retd.), their two aides and the pilots crashed around 4:30 p.m., killing them all. The other victims were Commander Murtala Mohammed Daba, Lt. Adeyemi O. Sowole, Warrant Officer Mohammed Kamal, and Dauda Tsoho, whose corpse arrived with Yakowa’s.

•Photo, courtesy PM News: Yakowa’s body on arrival at Kaduna Airport . . . this afternoon.