Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, says the burial of the late Aminu Dantata, business magnate and philanthropist, will take place on Tuesday.
Dantata died on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), but he wished to be buried in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, Mustapha Junaid, the late philanthropist’s principal private secretary, said Dantata would be buried Monday morning.
However, Idris told the BBC that the burial would be held on Tuesday, as both the Nigerian embassy and the family of the deceased are working on completing the necessary documents.
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The minister is part of the federal government delegation for Dantata’s funeral led by Mohammed Badaru, his defence counterpart and former governor of Jigawa.
The delegation, which departed Nigeria late Sunday, arrived in Madinah in the early hours of Monday.
Other members of the delegation include Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, and Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, minister of state for housing development.
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Also in the delegation are Islamic clerics — Bashir Aliyu Umar, Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, and Khalifa Abdullahi Muhammad, imam of Dantata Mosque in Abuja.
On Saturday, Salatul Ga’ib, an Islamic funeral prayer in absentia, was held in Kano for the late Dantata.
The funeral prayer was held at the Umar Bin Khattab Mosque in Kano metropolis and was led by Ibrahim Khalil, chairman of the Kano state council of Ulamas.
Dantata, 94, an uncle of Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is survived by three wives, 21 children and 121 grandchildren.
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