Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, Nigeria's High Commissioner to the UK, has described the death of Gov. Patrick Yakowa as a great lost to the nation.?
Yakowa died on Saturday in helicopter crash with Gen. Andrew Azazi, former National Security Adviser and four others.?
Tafida, in an interview with the Western Europe correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in London, said Yakowa was a humble and hardworking man who rose from grass to grace.?
“Late Sir Patrick Yakowa was a fantastic gentleman, hardworking, and somebody who grew from grass to grace as he rose as a civil servant to the peak of service in Kaduna State and then a minister at the federal level.?
“Just as we come, so we will go anytime God wants us, we will go. Yakowa was an excellent person, I worked with him as Secretary of the Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project.
“I hope and pray that his family will be able to accept the will of Allah,” Tafida said.?
Similarly, some Kaduna State indigenes resident in the UK have expressed shock over the incident which they described as “unbelievable”.?
Mr Inuwa Bako, a member of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK), urged the Federal Government to carry out a full investigation into the crash.?
Bako told NAN that a probe would proffer solutions to prevent a recurrence, especially those caused by human and technical faults.?
In another development, Mrs Maria Shemang, a Kaduna indigene, said “we were told the governor will visit the UK in 2013, and that should have been an opportunity to meet him one on one, and voice out our concerns, and areas we can contribute to developments at home.”?
Shemang prayed to God to grant the families of the deceased the fortitude to bear the losses.