IYAYI TO BE BURIED IN DECEMBER - FAMILY

The family of Prof. Festus Iyayi, former President of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has tentatively fixed his burial
for the first week of December.
A member of the Iyayi family, Prof. Robert Ebewele, disclosed this,
Thursday, just as the federal government expressed deep shock and
regret over the death of the former ASUU president, describing him as
a foremost patriot and literary icon.
Iyayi died in an auto crash involving the convoy of Kogi State
Governor, Idris Wada, in Banda, Lokoja, while he was on his way to
honour a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the union in
Kano State, over the four-month-old strike by university teachers
across the country.
Ebewele, who disclosed the funeral plan, when the Pro-chancellor of
the University of Benin Senator Effiong Dickson Bob, paid the
deceased's family a condolence visit, said the funeral would commence
with a commendation service.
Thanking EffIong for his concern, Ebewele said the family would liaise
with the university community for the burial programme.
Earlier, Effiong, who was led on the visit by the Vice-Chancellor of
the institution, Prof. Osayuki Oshodin, said: "It's my hope that his
death will spur ASUU leadership to honour him by finding a lasting
solution to the strike even as I urge all those who are alive to do
all they could with steadfastness and courage.