Senate President Godswill Akpabio has arrived in Vatican City with other prominent Nigerian delegates ahead of the funeral ceremony of Pope Francis, set to take place on Saturday.
Appointed by President Bola Tinubu, Akpabio leads the delegation representing Nigeria at the final rites of the late Pontiff.
The group includes religious and government figures such as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese Matthew Hassan Kukah, and Archbishop Ignatius Ayua Kaigama of Abuja.
Akpabio expressed the nation’s sorrow and condolences in a Facebook post shared on Friday.
“As the Leader of Nigeria’s delegation to the burial ceremony of Pope Francis, I paid tribute to our departed Pope, on behalf of President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian People at the Lying-in-State of Pope Francis, inside St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City,” he wrote.
See more photos below;
