A Nigerian government delegation led by the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, has arrived in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, to receive the body of late industrialist and philanthropist, Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata, who died in Abu Dhabi on Saturday at the age of 94.

Dantata, one of Nigeria’s most prominent businessmen, will be buried in Madinah on Monday, June 30, in accordance with Islamic rites. He had expressed a lifelong wish to be buried in the holy city.

The delegation, which departed Nigeria on Sunday night, includes the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN); the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris; and the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Honourable Yusuf Abdullahi Ata.

Prominent Islamic clerics also travelled with the delegation. Among them are Dr Bashir Aliyu Umar, Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, and Khalifa Abdullahi Muhammad, Imam of the Dantata Mosque in Abuja.

Upon arrival, the Nigerian officials were received by Ambassador Muazzam Ibrahim Nayaya and other members of the Nigerian Consulate General in Jeddah, who had been coordinating funeral arrangements with Saudi authorities.

According to Dantata’s Principal Private Secretary, Mustapha Junaid, yesterday, approval for the burial in Medina was granted by the Saudi government.

Junaid confirmed on social media that “Aminu Alhassan Dantata will be buried tomorrow morning by the grace of Allah.”

Dantata’s body was transported from Abu Dhabi to Madinah, where he will be laid to rest next to his late wife, Rabi’a Dantata, who died in 2023. The Janazah (funeral prayer) is scheduled to take place at Masjid an-Nabawi, the Prophet’s Mosque.

Initial plans considered repatriating his remains to Kano if permission for burial in Medina was not granted. However, once approval came through, arrangements were finalised for the burial in the Islamic holy city.