The seven Kano State students and their driver who died along Lagos-Ibadan expressway were on Thursday buried in Kano, amid tears, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The funeral prayer was conducted at the Emir’s Palace, Kano, around 9 a.m., and the deceased were buried at the Tarauni cemetary.
Among those that attended the prayer were Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, members of the state Executive Council, other top government officials as well as parents and sympathisers.
The funeral prayer was led by the Chief Imam of Kano, Sani Zahraddeen, who prayed God to grant the souls of the departed eternal rest and Jannatul Firdaus (The highest Paradise).
He also prayed God to give their families the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Gov. Ganduje had on Wednesday received bodies of the students and the driver, and described the incident as shocking to the government and people of the state.
He also described the deceased as heroes who were on a mission to do the state proud.
He prayed God to grant them Jannatul Firdaus and urged their families to take solace in the fact that all mortals would inevitably die.
The seven students and their driver died on Tuesday while returning from Lagos after attending a national quiz competition.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has condoled with the parents, government people of Kano state over the loss of students who had gone to represent the state at a quiz competition in Lagos.
In a statement released by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, Dogara described the loss as irreparable and prayed God to comfort the parents of the deceased students.
“Kano state has lost very brilliant young minds; this is particularly painful because of the contributions they could have made to developing the state and indeed the country in general”, he said.
“My heart goes out to the parents, friends and teachers of these students; loosing young ones can be most traumatic and it is an experience very difficult to put up with”.
“May God grant their parents, fellow students, the school and the rest of us equally pained by this monumental loss the fortitude to bear it”, he said.
The fatal accident, which claimed the lives of the students and their driver, occurred when the students were returning to Kano after they had represented the state in a quiz competition in Lagos.
