Showing posts with label Niger Delta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Niger Delta. Show all posts

Sunday, 8 February 2009

A well-deserved honour


The body of Mrs Alaere Alaibe arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International on Friday morning aboard a British Airways plane, and was received by a large crowd of mourners. Sympathisers included former Deputy President of the Senate, Ibrahim Mantu, former Speaker of the House, Austin Opara, former Transportation Minister, Abiye Sekibo among others.

Alaere's body was subsequently airlifted from Abuja to Port Harcourt later on Friday and met by large crowd of grief-stricken sympathizers and well-wishers at the Port Harcourt Airforce Base. Most of the sympathisers could not hold back the tears as it dawned on them that Alaere was really gone. Bayelsa women groups and a large number of Alaere's close friends and associates and dignitaries associated with her husband, the Managing Drector of the NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe, lined up the tarmac to pay their respects to their beloved friend who succumbed to cancer in a London hospital. The body was quickly transferred to a waiting ambulance which was driven to a private hospital mortuary in Port Harcourt.

In life she changed the lots of many in the Niger Delta and beyond. She was a true proponent of the Niger Delta component of the President YarAdua's 7-point agenda . In fact she acted way ahead of the pack. Alaere particularly touched the lives of youths and rural women through her projects in the FREE Foundation. Grateful Nigerians burdened by the grief of her premature exit came to pay their respects.

Alaere will be buried at Trofani, her home town in Sagbama local council, after traditional wake keeping at Igbainwari, Opokuma in line with Ijaw culture. Thursday/Friday February 12/13, 2009.