Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has directed that all markets and public schools in the Remo Zone of the state be closed on Wednesday for the burial of the late Chief HID Awolowo.
This is contained in a release signed in Abeokuta on Monday by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa.
It stated that the closure was a mark of respect for the late Matriarch of the Awolowo dynasty, who died on September 19.
The release, however, said the directive would affect only schools in Ikenne, Remo North and Sagamu local government areas.
”Government, hereby, appeals to market men and women as well as residents of the state to troop out en-masse to give late Mrs Awolowo a befitting burial,” it said.
Also the governor on Monday named the only Model School in Ikenne and the recently completed PlainField Estate at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta after the late Chief HID Awolowo.
Amosun made the announcement in his address at Sagamu International Stadium, where he hosted eminent personalities as part of activities organised for the burial of late Mrs Awolowo.
The governor, who eulogised the deceased, described her as “a pride of womanhood”, promised that the legacies of the Awolowo dynasty would be upheld by the government.
Eminent personalities who attended the event included former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande.
Others are wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs Bola Obasanjo, and chieftain of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, among others.
