GOVERNMENT officials, staff from the Ministry of Education, educators, students, and other mourners paid their final respects to former Chief Education Officer and adviser to the Minister of Education, Dr. Olato Sam, 54, who was laid to rest, on Saturday, at the Soesdyke cemetery.

Dr. Sam met his demise on August 4 when he was struck by a stray bullet while enjoying an evening hanging out with a few of his friends at the Plaisance Railway embankment on the East Coast of Demerara.

Following the two-hour viewing at the Merriman’s Funeral Parlour in Bent Street, Georgetown, the funeral procession was escorted to the St Mary’s Anglican Church at Soesdyke for a funeral service followed by burial at the Soesdyke cemetery.