Senate Wants Ilorin Airport Named After Saraki

The Senate yesterday urged the Federal Government to name the Illorin International Airport after the late senator and Kwara State top politician, Dr. Olusola Saraki.

The upper chamber, after paying glowing tributes to Dr Saraki via a motion sponsored by the Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba, further set up a 12 man delegation to condole with the late Senator’s family, the government and people of Kwara State.

The delegation will be led by the leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba.

Late Saraki was in 1979 unanimously elected Senate Leader by all the parties.

Moving the motion, Sen. Ndoma-Egba remarked that throughout the Second Republic, late Saraki’s negotiating and manoeuvring skills made him easily the most powerful individual in the Senate of that republic even his party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), did not enjoy an outright majority in the Senate.

Ndoma-Egba said that “his charismatic personality till date defined the office of Senate Leader and gave it character. Many years after he left the office, he remains easily the best and most known Senate Leader.”

He noted that late Saraki’s commitment to his native Kwara State, national integration and philanthropy were legendary, and remarked that he was the only Nigerian with the unprecedented achievement of producing two senators in the same republic, senators Gbemi and Bukola Saraki, and a governor at his home state, Kwara State, from among his biological children.

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