The remains of former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi (Rtd.), will be buried today at the newly created Ijaw National Heroes Park (INHP), Yenagoa, the capital of his home state, Bayelsa.
This is as the burial plan has begun to generate controversy with his kinsmen – elders and youths – threatening to boycott the ceremony if he is not buried in his community, Peretorugbebe in Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa State with full traditional rights as a indigene of the area.
Spokesman of the community, Chief Abike Ebikake, made this known in Yenagoa yesterday at a press briefing , declaring that it was against the tradition of the community to bury her indigenes outside the area.
Azazi, who died in a helicopter crash on December 15 alongside former Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, and four others will be buried today in Yenagoa.
With the threat by his kinsmen, there are fears that some aggrieved indigenes of the community may disrupt the burial activities in protest. But the state government has concluded arrangements to bury him at the Heroes Park in the state capital.
Already, dignitaries, including top government functionaries and military chiefs, have started arriving Yenagoa for the burial ceremony , as security has been stepped up in the state capital.
President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to arrive the state today for the burial ceremony. Another kinsman of Gen. Azazi and community leader, Chief Alex Ekiotene, said they were not happy that the former National Security Adviser would be buried in Yenagoa. “It is against the culture of Ijaw man to be buried outside the community.
At your death, if your body is found, tradition demands you are buried in the community. If Azazi were alive , he would not allow his body to be buried outside ,” Ekiotene explained. “I expected Mr. President and the governor to know better. Posterity will always judge those who have taken this decision.”
But sources told our reporters that security concern as well as logistics, considering the location and accessibility of Peretorogbene community, the Late Azazi’s place of extraction, is considered as factors for the choice of Yenagoa.
The increasing wave of kidnap in the Niger Delta was also said to be a part of the inhibitions. However, the establishment of INHP by the Bayelsa State Government, which, according to reports, has the blessings of President Goodluck Jonathan, is considered as novel and a melting point for Azazi’s final rest.
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