Pilot buried in Zaria following Niger plane disaster

On Tuesday, Flight Lieutenant Ibrahim Adamu Abubakar’s remains were laid to rest. He was the pilot of a MI-171 jet operated by the Nigerian Air Force when it crashed in Niger State.

He was laid to rest at Zaria, Kaduna State, following a prayer at the Haruna Danja Jumma’at mosque in Tudun Wada.

Hundreds of mourners and family members participated at the prayer, which was conducted by the mosque’s chief imam, Sheikh Muhammad Sani Gumi.

The late pilot’s family had already held a memorial prayer (Salatul Gha’ib) for the deceased in Tudun Jukun, Zaria.

Abubakar Adamu, the deceased’s elder brother, revealed that since they were unable to receive the body, the family had earlier held a proxy funeral prayer for the deceased.

As a family, we have a religious obligation to do the prayer with or without the corpse, he said. Such a prayer is known as Salatul Gha’ib in Islam and is observed when the corpse of a deceased person is not located.

Adamu stated that since the body had been found, it was also necessary to say a new funeral prayer for the deceased.

The family, he said, had been in deep shock and sadness, but they had now come to believe that the late pilot had been blessed with a Shahada that would bring him to Aljanna (heaven) after death because he died fighting for the liberation of his people and the nation as a whole.

Mother of the late Hajiya A’ishatu Adams said her son was a “Hafiz” (someone who memorised the Holy Qur’an) and was always quiet and serene.

She claimed that the purpose of her prayer is to implore Allah for his soul’s repose in Jannatul Firdausi.