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The Burial arrangement of Alhaji Aminu Dantata, has been slated for Tuesday, in Medina, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Announcing this in a statement, the Minister of Information, Muhammad Idris, said the shift in the burial date of the businessman was necessitated by the late arrival of his body to the City of Medina.
Speaking to BBC Hausa service, the Minister explained that there are rules and regulations upon which the Saudi Arabian Government receive corpses from outside its country and they are now aligning with those regulations to complete the arrangement.
The Minister said they would complete all the necessary legal requirements by Tuesday after which Dantata would be buried same day.
In the same vein the Kano and Jigawa State Governor’s in the company of the 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II and former Governor of Jigawa State, Ali Saad Birnin Kudu are already in Medina for the burial.
Dantata was born into one of Nigeria’s most influential business families. He was the younger brother of Sanusi Dantata, making him a granduncle to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. After his father died in 1955, the children took over the family enterprise, Alhassan Dantata & Sons. In 1958, Aminu became deputy managing director, and following the death of his elder brother Ahmadu in 1960, he took the helm of the business.
Under his guidance, the company diversified into banking, petroleum, agriculture, real estate, construction, manufacturing, and finance. He later founded Express Petroleum & Gas Company Ltd and was instrumental in establishing Jaiz Bank, the first non-interest bank in Nigeria.
Dantata once famously said he owned land “all over the world”, a lesson passed down from his father, who emphasised land as the foundation of generational wealth.
“I don’t think I would be able to tell you what land I have now, all over the world, not only in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there is nowhere I don’t have lands. Also, in areas where people don’t have the opportunity, I have lands,” he said.
Dantata was also a former board chairman of the Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc (NNFM).
