As doctors at the
Yola Specialist Hospital battled on Thursday to save the life of Governor
Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State after he was involved in a plane crash, a band
of thugs invaded Government House, Jalingo and chased out his deputy, Alhaji
Garba Umar.
The invasion, which
is
now being probed by the State Security Service (SSS), is strongly suspected
to be part of a plot to stop Umar from succeeding Suntai in the event that the
governor did not survive.
At the centre of the
SSS probe is a senator said to have instigated the attack.
Governor Suntai was
widely rumoured to have died in the crash until the Presidency and the Ministry
of Aviation, in separate statements, said he did not.
Umar, who was only
sworn-in on October 5, was forced out of the Government House by thugs
allegedly acting on the orders of the Senator.
Umar’s predecessor,
Alhaji Sani Abubakar, was himself stopped from seeing the governor in the
hospital by security agents.
Governor Suntai was
transferred from Yola to the National Hospital, Abuja yesterday, wearing an
oxygen mask. He was heavily bandaged.
A highly placed
source who spoke on the Government House invasion, said: “Following the
rumoured death of the governor, some thugs loyal to a serving senator invaded
the Government House at about 11pm and unconstitutionally ejected the Deputy
Governor from the place.
“They were shouting
that under no condition would they allow the Deputy Governor to succeed Suntai
who was presumed dead.
“Worried by the
threat to his life, the Deputy Governor was ferried by security aides to the
state office of the SSS in Jalingo.
“He slept at the SSS
office overnight to avoid being killed. But a reinforcement of security around
the Deputy Governor was effected on Friday to prevent further harassment
against him.”
The source added:
“We are investigating the alleged involvement of a serving senator in the
illegal attack on the Deputy Governor.
“If the senator’s
culpability is established, we will effect his arrest and trial.
“So far, it has been
established that the senator has been at loggerheads with the governor. The
suspect was opposed to how the immediate past Deputy Governor, Alhaji Sani
Abubakar, was impeached by the Taraba State House of Assembly based on ‘cooked
up’ allegations of gross misconduct levelled against him by the state
lawmakers.”
Suntai was moved to
the National Hospital, Abuja at about 2.08 p.m yesterday under tight security.
He was driven into
the hospital premises in a State House Medical Centre Ambulance with
registration number SH 576.
He was bandaged from
head to toe and had an oxygen mask on his face.
He sat on a
reclining chair in the ambulance.
A total of seven
vehicles were in the convoy, many of them occupied by security operatives.
By then, reporters
and photographers had positioned themselves at the entrance of the Accident and
Emergency Unit.
But as soon as the
security operatives sighted the newsmen, they diverted the ambulance to the
back of the hospital.
At about 3.10 pm,
President Goodluck Jonathan arrived the hospital to personally assess the
governor’s condition.
He told reporters as
he departed that the governor’s condition had stabilised.
He said: “First and
foremost, we have to thank God for what has happened. Plane crash is not
something you can just wave off. We are quite happy that the Governor is still
stable and feeling well.”
“The doctors are
working very hard on him. I believe that by God’s will, he will soon come out
of it. But he is still in the hospital. No doubt about that. And the professor/
CMD is here. He can just say one or two things. Being a Governor, people are worried.
They want to know his state of health.”
The Chief Medical
Director of the National Hospital, Prof. Bala Shehu, said: “Just like the
President said, he is very stable. Obviously, in the first 24 hours of any
injuries, there are worries. There are very few worries. There are very few.
So, we will continue to observe him for the first 24 hours.
“There is no need to
do any operation on him. He is very stable. Given what happened, we are
actually satisfied with the situation at the moment.”
However, a source in
the hospital said the governor had neurological disorder from the crash.
No comments:
Post a Comment