Bisola David
The federal government has established a state funeral committee in order to organize a dignified burial ceremony for the late Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, who served as the country’s former chief of general staff.
The Punch reported that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (who also served as the committee’s first speaker), Boss Mustapha, encouraged the committee to make sure that the late elder statesman would get a respectable funeral.
The director of information at the SGF office, Mr. Willie Bassey, said in a statement on Wednesday that the SGF, who was represented by the permanent secretary of general services in the office of the secretary to the government, Dr. Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri, said that the state funeral committee would, among other things, arrange for Diya’s proper burial in collaboration with Ogun and Lagos state governments.
The SGF, Boss Mustapha, chairs the committee, which was assembled from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
They include representatives of the Ogun and Lagos State Governments, the late Lt. Gen. Diya’s family, the Ministry of Works and Housing, the Ministry of Information and Culture,the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of the Department of State Services, and the Permanent Secretary of the General Services Office.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ganiyu Hamzat, assured the SGF of the readiness of the State Government to work with the Federal Government to give the late Chief of General Staff a grand state funeral in his capacity as the Executive Governor of Ogun State.
The State Government, he said, had generously provided the sum of N50,000,000.00 and they had also improved the road system to make it easier to go to the funeral site.
In response, the family thanked the Federal Government and the Ogun State Government for supporting them during the death of their father and for arranging a dignified funeral for him on behalf of the son of the former Chief of General Staff, Oyedamola Diya.
The son of the late statesman also released the funeral program which will commence on Sunday, 23rd July 2023 with the service of songs and a night of tribute and climax with the final burial rites and interment on Saturday 29th July 2023.
