Vice President Kashim Shettima and the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, have arrived in London, the United Kingdom, to receive the body of the late President, Muhammadu Buhari, who passed on on Sunday.
The vice president and the chief of staff led the Nigerian delegation to London early Monday.
The Nigerian delegation to the United Kingdom was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum; among others.
President Bola Tinubu had on Sunday directed Shettima and Gbajabiamila to lead the Nigerian delegation to receive the body of his predecessor for burial in Nigeria.
Buhari died in London on Sunday at about 4.30 pm, following a prolonged illness.
Tinubu immediately ordered flags at half-staff as a mark of respect for the departed leader and offered his deep condolences to the family of the late president.
Buhari, who hailed from Daura, Katsina State, in Nigeria’s North-West zone served as the country’s military head of state between January 1984 and August 1985.
With the country’s return to democracy in 1999, Buhari contested for president in 2003, 2007 and 2011 but he lost.
In 2013, his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) joined forces with Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), some factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to birth the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the 2015 election, Buhari with his running mate Yemi Osinbajo ousted then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP to win the much-coveted Aso Villa spot. Both Buhari and Osinbajo were sworn in on May 29, 2015 and returned elected on May 29, 2019. Their victory was the first time in the Fourth Republic that an opposition defeated the party in power. Both men handed over to their partymen Tinubu and Shettima on May 29, 2023.
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