Date Published: 05/05/10

IBB, Akpabio, Mimiko, Soyinka, Ohakim mourn

IBB

Former Military President Gen Ibrahim Babangida,Governor Godswill Akpabio, Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka and Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo state, this morning condoled with Nigerians over the president’s death. They described President Yar’Adua’s death as painful.

Godswill Akpabio

Babangida said: “It is pathetic and utterly painful. Every death brings with it tears of pain and sorrow, of grief and discomfiture.”

 In a statement by his spokesman, Kassim Afegbua, Babangida said: “He (Yar’Adua) was great in death and graceful in life. He represented our daily struggles in life’s bramble forest. We salute his courage. May Allah give the family, the nation, and the Acting President the strength to bear the loss. May Allah grant him eternal rest.”

Governor Akpabio said: “The nation would greatly miss an honest and committed democrat; a God-fearing leader and a great patriot who believed in justice and did all within his power to move Nigeria to where it ought to be. He was detribalized, forthright and a strong believer in the rule of law. We  mourn him deeply and pray the almighty God to grant his gentle eternal rest.”

 Soyinka said: “What passes for the Nigerian nation is nothing more than a tragic arena, and Yar’Adua is the only tragic figure. The vampires, including those within his own family, turned him into a mere inert resource for their diabolical schemes.

Olusegun Mimiko

“They have a reckoning with their conscience, assuming they know what the word means. One can only hope that, while mouthing sanctimonious platitudes such as ‘power belongs to God’, they have now learnt that politics of do-or-die cannot guarantee who does and who dies.

“They must stop playing God. I pray for the repose of the soul of their latest, much abused, innocent victim.”

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko described the death as a sad loss.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Kolawole Olabisi described President Yar’Adua as an apostle of democracy and a firm believer in the Rule of Law and fair play, Mimiko said: “I have just received with shock, the passing away of our dear President, and I commiserate with his immediate family and the entire people of Nigeria. President Yar’Adua was an apostle of Democracy, one whose firm belief in the Rule of Law and fair play enabled us to use the instrumentality of the Law Courts to wrest our mandate whent it was forcefully and illegally taken from us. He was a true democrat and to us in Ondo State, his death was a personal loss and we will miss him dearly. We pray that Almighty Allah will grant him eternal rest.”