Hadiza Shehu Shagari, the wife of Nigeria’s first democratically-elected president, the late Shehu Shagari, has died.

A statement by the Shagari family said the 80-year-old died early on Thursday, August 12, 2021.

She died of COVID-19 complications after battling the disease while hospitalised at the Gwagwalada Isolation Centre in Abuja.

“Her Juma’iza (funeral prayer) will take place today (Thursday), at 4:00 pm, immediately after Asr prayer, at the National Mosque, Abuja,” the Shagari family said.

COVID-19 has killed over 2,100 people in Nigeria since the country recorded its first case of the pandemic in February 2021.

Officials recently warned that the nation is experiencing a third wave of the pandemic, but the country’s vaccination campaign has only reached a fraction of the population.