A former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Engr. Andrew Yakubu has described Mama Lydia Yilwatda, mother of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, who died at the age of 83 at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, as a devoted Christian, a virtuous woman leader, and a pillar of the Church of Christ in Nations.
Yakubu and the Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida International Golf Club, Abuja, Dr. Peter Deshi, who accompanied him during a condolence visit to Yilwatda at his residence, expressed their shock at the death.
‘Her death is not only a personal loss to the National Chairman but also to the entire APC family in Plateau State and across the country’, they said.
They noted that Mama Lydia, along with her late husband, Rev. Toma Goshewe Yilwatda, made significant contributions to the growth of the church in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, and Plateau States.
They also emphasised the impact of her death, saying, ‘there is no doubt that the late Mama’s passing is painful and devastating to the Yilwatda family, especially at a time when her motherly advice and prayers were most needed, particularly by Prof. Yilwatda’.
They took comfort in the legacy she left behind, which is evident in her accomplished children. ‘Her demise is a great loss to the church, the Women’s Fellowship, and Plateau State’, they added.
In sharing their condolences, the duo prayed for the eternal rest of Mama Lydia’s soul, and prayed for God to bless and repose the soul of the departed.
