Pallbearers today Tuesday, at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Katsina, wheeled former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s casket in a slow march to music from a military band playing instruments to the tune of the Christian hymn, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again,” at the
His successor, current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, waited at the airport and received the Civil War veteran’s remains ahead of the final burial.
Arriving at the airport from Abuja at 1:42pm Tinubu had inspected a guard of honour before the Nigerian Air Force plane conveying the remains of his predecessor landed at 1:50pm.
Former President Buhari died on Sunday, July 13, 2025, in a private hospital in London, United Kingdom.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila, President Buhari’s wife Aisha, and other family members accompanied President Buhari’s remains to Nigeria.
Aisha Buhari, who alongside her children adorned in black, was accompanied by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu.
The former First Lady, Aisha Buhari, her daughter, Zahra Buhari Indimi, and other family members wept as the body of late former President Muhammadu Buhari was evacuated from the aircraft that conveyed it from the UK.
President Tinubu, along with Vice President Kashim Shettima, President Umaru Sissoco Embaló of Guinea-Bissau, Prime Minister of Niger, Ali Lamine Zeine, former President of Niger, Issoufou Mahamadou, and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, received the casket of the late President at the foot of the aircraft.
A joint team of military pallbearers comprising nine senior officers laid the casket, draped with the Nigerian flag, on a trolley.
As Tinubu and others walked behind the casket trolley in a solemn procession, it was rolled through a full military guard of honour comprising six officers and 96 soldiers drawn from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Afterwards, the pallbearers escorted the casket into a waiting military hearse for the one-hour journey to Daura, where funeral prayers and the burial ceremony took place.
Thereafter, the burial train drove one hour in a long convoy to Buhari’s final resting place at his residence in Daura, Katsina State.
The state funeral featured full military honours, heralded by a 21-gun salute.
Following the body’s arrival at Daura, a brief prayer session, in line with Islamic burial rites, was held at a makeshift praying ground.
He was lowered into the grave at exactly 5:50pm.
As against initial reports that the body of the late ex-President would be conveyed in cargo, Buhari’s body arrived in the Presidential Jet that also conveyed his family and the delegates led by the Vice President.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, read a citation of Buhari who also served as a Military Head of state from 1983 to 1985.
