The death has been announced of Hajiya Astajam Ali-Akilu. She passed on yesterday at the Abuja Clinic after a brief illness. She was aged 74. Hajiya Ali-Akilu is survived by two brothers (including a former chief of air staff, Air Vice Marshal A.D. Bello), a sister and seven children, including Dr Fatima Akilu, chairman, Editorial Board of LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group; Hurera Akilu-Atta, general manager,? Allan Woods Ltd. and Hajiya Hauwa Akilu-Isa, the wife of former chairman of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) Alhaji Ismaila Isa.?
Her husband, the late Ali Akilu, was the secretary of the defunct Northern Region government led by Sir Ahmadu Bello in the First Republic.
Hajiya Ali-Akilu was a business woman and activist. She was one of the founders of the Jamatu Nasiril Islam as well as the first orphanage in Kaduna. During the Second Republic, she was the head of the women’s wing of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).? ?
She has been buried according to Islamic rites.
Among the dignitaries that attended her burial were former inspector-general of police (IGP) Muhammadu Gambo Jimeta, NPN chieftain in the Second Republic Alhaji Isiaku Ibrahim, Alhaji Saleh Jambo, Mallam Umaru Mutallab, Ambassador Ibrahim Chinade; the executive director of Bulet International Limited, Alhaji Lawal Isa; and former CPC gubernatorial aspirant in Katsina State, Alhaji Abubakar Isa.