By Balarabe Oshiafi
As early as 7am on Saturday, February 8, 2025, guests had started pouring in on Yahaya Bello street venue of the Fidau (burial ceremony) of Alhaji Yahaya Imodagbe, a patriarch and scion of the Imodagbe dynasty of Ayua who left for the great beyond on December 27, last year.
Yahaya Bello street is off Alhaji Abbas Street, Jattu-Uzairue in Etsako-West local government area of Edo State. When this writer got there about 7am, guests were coming into the expansive residence, standing in clusters and engaging in lowered talks about the event of the day.
More people poured in and as supervised by the eldest Son of the departed Patriarch, Lukman Imodagbe started taking their seats under the canopies in accordance with specifications
About 11am as more dignitaries came in, the spokesman of the Muslim Ulamas and Chairman of the Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, Mallam Musa Muhammad Uduimoh announced that the reason for the gathering is the Fidau prayer for.Alhaji Yahaya Imodagbe. He urged the guests to observe decorum and that the essence of the occasion was prayers for Allah’s forgiveness of the shortcomings of the departed Patriarch and retaining him eternally in Paradise, (Aljanat Fridaus).
Uduimoh who displayed admirable public speaking talent seized the opportunity to urge Muslims intending to pay the holy pilgrimage to Mecca this year to try and meet up with the deadline. He also showered encomiums on the Executive Governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpewholo, for always granting speedy accent to his requisitions.
Shortly afterwards, verses of the Holy Quran were shared amongst those schooled in Islamic theology for silent recitation.
It is instructive to note that the guests who came for the burial ceremony included a powerful delegation from the government of Kogi State. ExpressDay Newspaper also finds it worthy of note that two of the Kogi high table members also collected verses of the Quran and joined other knowledgeable Uzairue clerics in the solemn recitation.
In Afemai, there is a saying that when a child is born, he or she belongs to the parents but when that child has metamorphosed into an adult, he/she belongs to the society. During the ceremony, this was reenacted. Alhaji Yahaya Imodagbe is the father of the immediate past first Lady of Kogi State, Alhaja Rashida Yahaya Bello. To honour her, people of influence, affluence, importance, substance and a wide congregation of common people cutting across ,various tribes came to the occasion.
Even as the Fidau was wholly Islamic and did not parade any alcoholic drinks, the larges turn out of many and varied guests attests to the widely held view that the former first Lady of Kogi State is in the good books of a wide variety of people who have come across her in the course of her sojourn as the Wife of the former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
By the same token, her Father whose Fidau was taking place also elicited kind words from most of the guests who shared the same neighborhood with him during his lifetime. Not a few were heard referring to the late Imodagbe’s sobriquet -equal right and justice, adding that he was imbued with excellent human relations spirit and attitude.
The Managing Director of Ideal Guest House, Jattu-Uzairue, Chief Akinlolu Akinniranye had this to say about the life and times of Alhaji Yahaya Imodagbe:”He was a pious and easy going person. I know all his children and I’m happy they have not deviated from the virtues of respect for God and Man that he moulded them to uphold “.
In his own remarks, the younger brother of the departed Patriarch, Dr Isa Imodagbe said he is still too emotional to talk about his late elder brother.
” I’m a retired broadcast Journalist..All I can say is that I will keep his legacies alive for the benefit of my family and the larger society”, he said.
Some of the dignitaries who graced the Fidau are the Etsako-West APC leader and oil magnate Alhaji Shamac Okwilagwe, former Executive Chairman of Etsako-West LGA, Honourable Alasa Idaro, popular musical artistes, Constance Bolivia, many Uzairue and Igbo red cap chiefs that constraint of space would not let us mention here.
The occasion was spiced up with plenty of food and non-alcoholic drinks.
It is such that this writer came away with the conclusion that Alhaji Yahaya Imodagbe has been promoted to the most comfortable part of Aljanat Fridaus for an interminable stay. Amin.
(Balarabe Oshiafi, City Editor ExpressDay Newspaper, writes from Iyuku-Uzairue)
