Buhari meets family, pays tribute to late Sen. Abba Ali

Members of the bereaved family of late Senator Abba Ali, a friend and decades long associate of President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday in Daura visited the President to share their common loss of a man who diligently served Nigeria.

The family members, including the children of the deceased, were led to the President by the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufa’i Abubakar.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba

Shehu, said Buhari in a tribute, described the death of the Chairman of the National Governance Council of the African Peer Review-NEPAD as an irreparable loss of an irreplaceable friend whom he said had “a warm personality and affable manners that won him a lot of respect and admiration. Words are of little solace at this time.”

According to the statement, the family members, who spoke through Alhaji Usman, Tarnon Katsina, said they were all aware of the social and emotional bonds between President Buhari and their late father and thanked him for his support to the deceased following the tragic accident, and the family, after he passed on.

They prayed for peaceful elections in the country and a safe return home for the President after successful completion of his second term, the statement noted.