The remains of former Senate President of Nigeria, Late Joseph Wayas, has arrived the Cargo wing of Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja from Heathrow Airport London, United Kingdom onboard British Airways BA O83 at 4.40am this morning.
This is happening after exactly two years and nine months since his passing. His body has arrived in preparation for the final funeral rites.
Late Wayas was Nigeria’s Senate President between October 1,1979 and December 31,1983. He died in a London hospital on November 30,2021, at the age of 80.
The ex-Senate President’s wife died 12 days after. While his wife had since been buried, the revered politician’s remains had remained in a morgue in London, a development that had sparked controversies.
Some persons who had concluded that the late octogenarian’s body had since been secretly interred in London, were surprised to see the remains back 33 months after.
Speaking variously to newsmen, after the body was received, Senator Jarigbe Agom, representing Cross River North, Senator Eteng Williams, Senator representing Cross River Central Senatorial District, and Hon Peter Akpanke, representing Obudu, Bekwara Obanlikwu Federal Constituency, at the National Assembly, expressed happiness that the body had finally been brought home.
Recall that when the politician and his wife died, the then governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade’s government immediately set up a committee headed by former Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi, to oversee the burial activities.
To facilitate the committee’s work, Ayade was said to have approved and immediately released N200 million to the committee with a promise to release another tranche of N50 million.
It was gathered that the committee released N100 million to a sub-committee vested with the task of repatriating the remains of Wayas and his wife and headed by the former Director General, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Dave Ashang, to liaise with the family to achieve the purpose.
However, all these efforts were fruitless, thus compelling some sons and daughters of Cross River North Senatorial district to set up a volunteer group under the aegis of “Who is Who in Northern Cross River” to take up the task of ensuring not only the return of his remains but also according it a befitting burial.
Wednesday’s arrival of the body was the handwork of the volunteer group which had coordinated donations from concerned indigenes of the zone.
