The burial committee of labour and civil society leader Abiodun Aremu has announced plans for his funeral rites.
According to a statement jointly signed by Funmi Sessi, chairperson of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Lanre Arogundade, executive director of the International Press Centre, the events will hold in three parts.
The first, an afternoon of tributes tagged Celebrating the Life of a Steadfast People’s Revolutionary, will take place from 12 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22, at the Nurses House (National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives Lagos State Secretariat), 19 Amaraolu Street, near Pearlworth Hotel, close to the New African Shrine, Agidingbi, Lagos.
Human rights lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, who chairs the burial committee, will preside over the session.
Representatives of labour unions, pro-democracy groups, human rights organisations and the Cuban Embassy are expected to attend.
Later that night, Aremu’s associates and friends will hold a candlelight procession and vigil at his residence near Ijako Sugar Bus Stop, along the Lagos–Abeokuta Expressway in Ogun State.
On Thursday, October 23, the lying-in-state will begin at 7 a.m. and end at 10 a.m., followed by funeral orations and family tributes before his interment at the same location.
Aremu was born in 1960 and died on October 12 after being hit by a vehicle near his home in Ota, Ogun State. He was 65.
He served as secretary of the Joint Action Front (JAF) and was active in several labour and civil society movements, including the Labour–Civil Society Coalition, the Kolagbodi Memorial Foundation and the Amilcar Cabral Ideological School.
Falana had earlier petitioned the Ogun State Police Command to investigate the hit-and-run incident that led to Aremu’s death and to prosecute the driver involved.
