Former Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa — who died last Saturday in a helicopter crash along with former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi and four others — has been buried at his country home in Fadan Kagoma, Kaduna.
Speaking during the burial service at St Paul’s Catholic Church, President Goodluck Jonathan described the late governor as a bridge builder who loved his people without religious or ethnic biases.
“Yakowa was a nationalist,” Jonathan said. “He played his roles very well as a civil servant of the old not, as a civil service of today when a director has more houses than Dangote. [There was] no ethnic or religious divide in his blood.”
In his message, Reverend Father Mathew Kukah urged the congregation to take heart because no one can question God’s decisions. He stated that Yakowa died because it was his time to, and urged listeners to ignore suspicious theories about his death as well as reports of jubilation among non-Christian religious sections of the state.
Cardinal John Onaiyekan conducted the Requiem and the Eucharist Mass, with the assistance of other ministers.
Dignitaries at the burial include former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar; Senate President, David Mark; Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki; Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi and his wife, Judith; and Governors Babangida Aliyu, Gabriel Suswam and Oluegun Mimiko of Niger, Benue and Ondo States
