Umaru Yar’Adua



Feb 24 2010

President back after 93 days in Saudi Arabia

By Yusuf Alli

The President returned from Saudi Arabia this morning – 93 days after he left for medical reasons.

An air ambulance landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport at 1.46a.m., carrying President Umaru Yar’Adua. Then a presidential jet landed at 1.55a.m. It was carrying presidential aides and First Lady Turai Yar’Adua.

There was excitement on the faces of a small crowd of security personnel and reporters who kept vigil at the airport.

An ambulance moved towards the plane, swarmed by an army of security men. President Yar’Adua was set to board the ambulance for the journey to the Villa at about 2.04a.m.

Security was tight. The Guards Brigade was present. So was the Police Anti-Bomb Unit. People were barred from the tarmac.

The arrival and departure halls were cleared ahead of Yar’Adua’s arrival. Passengers were chased out.

Minister of Federal Capital Territory Adamu Aliero was seen at the airport.

The six-man Federal Government delegation to Saudi Arabia arrived in the kingdom to a friendly weather yesterday. But the mission of the elite team – seeing President Yar’Adua and the Saudi King – failed.

Reason: President Yar’Adua had been suddenly discharged from the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah.

Yar’Adua had been in the hospital since November 23, last year for the treatment of acute pericarditis (inflammation of the heart’s covering).

His absence has led to a series of political activities, including the emergence of an Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan – for the first time in the history of Nigeria.

The furore generated by the continued stay of the President in the hospital led to a debate in the Federal Executive Council on the invocation of Section 144.

But the debate suffered a setback last Wednesday as the FEC could only raise a six-man team for a get-well trip to Saudi Arabia.

Investigations by The Nation revealed that the FEC delegation could not see Yar’Adua, let alone meeting with him.

It was gathered that Yar’Adua was discharged at about the same time the FEC delegation arrived in Jeddah.

A member of the delegation, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent at about 6.30pm from Jeddah, said: “The fact is that the President has been discharged and we learnt that he is already heading for Nigeria.

“He is likely to arrive at home in the early hours of Wednesday. We have not met with him.

“As I am talking to you, we are also returning to Nigeria immediately.”

Findings revealed that the Presidency has also received intelligent report on Yar’Adua’s homecoming.

A source said: “There is anxiety in the Presidency because Yar’Adua’s return will change the political game. There is tension everywhere”.

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Feb 21 2010

Saudi King Prevented Reps From Seeing Yar’adua – Ndume

By Sule Lazarus, Abuja & Isa Umar Gusau:

The hazy public knowledge on the exact state of the bedridden president, Umaru Yar’adua, would have to linger till God-knows-when as the no access order on the president is strictly being enforced by the Saudi Arabian authorities under the close supervision of the kingdom’s king, Abdallah.

Sunday Trust gathered on good authority that even the president’s chief physician, Dr Salisu Banye, the first lady, Turai now have restricted access to the ailing Nigerian president because of the new ban regime imposed and enforced by the Saudi authorities.
Only last week, the seven-man delegation sent by the House of Representatives to see the president returned to the country without having a glimpse of him. The delegation from the House are: Baba Shehu Agaie, leader of the delegation, Mohammed Ali Ndume, Patrick Ikhariale, Maruf Fatai, Jibril Adamu and Nnenna Ukeje who did not make the trip.
One of the delegates, Hon Mohammed Ali Ndume told Sunday Trust that contrary to insinuations that Turai barred people from accessing the president, it is the Saudi king who imposed the order and is enforcing it to save the president from ‘contact infection’, a new ailment that hit the president after he came out of the intensive care unit of the Jeddah hospital.
According to him, having waited for three days without seeing the president, the delegate sought to see the doctor attending to the president or the president’s personal physician, Dr Salisu Banye.
Cont’d from page 1
He said, “we met the Chief Physician of the President, Dr Banye, with the Nigerian Ambassador Aminchi. So, we had a meeting that day (Wednesday). It was then that he (Banye) informed us that actually, what happened was that when the president came and he was taken into Intensive Care Unit (ICU), after his medical attention and he was recovering, he was transferred to a ward where he had access to people. Unfortunately, because of the frequent contact with people, he had what they called a “contact infection”, which is an infection as a result of contact between him and the visitors. And he had a bad experience of relapse. In fact, they said the relapse was life threatening.”
The lawmaker said Banye told the delegates that when the news of Yar’adua’s new case got to King Abdallah, he came up with the new access regime that restricted everybody from seeing the president, including his wife, Turai and his private physician Banye.
Ndume recounted that, “So the doctor (Banye) said that when he (Yar’adua) had that experience, the information got to King Abdallah himself, and he (the King) now detailed his own personal physician from Riyadh to come and take over; and that if he gets out of the relapse situation, nobody should see him. That was where the problem started. He gave that instruction and since then, not everybody has unfettered access to him, not even his wife.”
It would be recalled that the delegate were billed to submit their report last week, but it was not clear at the time of this report whether the delegates submitted their report.
Turn to pages 14, 15 for full story.

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Feb 21 2010

Yar’Adua’s pilot stranded

By AMOS DUNIA, Abuja:

Following the National Assembly resolution empowering Dr Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President, the cabal sympathetic to ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua has intensified moves to ensure the status quo is maintained.

Sunday Sun gathered that as part of the plot to convince Nigerians that Yar’Adua was recovering and would soon return to the country to assume duties, the presidential fleet crew comprising the captain, co-pilots, flight engineer and attendants have been prevented from returning home even as they are said to be missing their families and dependants.

It was gathered that the passports of the crew members has been confiscated to ensure they do not leave Saudi Arabia while being confined to their hotels.
A dependable source informed Sunday Sun that even the movement of the crew members was being monitored in connivance with the Saudi Arabia authorities.
Back home in Nigeria, the powerful group is said to be working towards reversing the resolution of the federal legislature and paint the new leadership of the country as incompetent.

It is also said to be behind the worsening electricity crisis in the country and plans to sabotage fuel distribution across the nation, in an attempt to portray Jonathan as incapable of ruling Nigeria.
Sources said the group made up of some serving ministers, a handful of senators, House of Representatives members and some powerful businessmen from the northern part of the country was working to frustrate the government.

It was gathered that the same group has plotted to ensure that the power supply in the country gets worse. Electricity supply to major towns and cities in the country has plummeted in the past two weeks.
They are equally said to be targeting the petroleum sector to create artificial scarcity of petroleum products, all in an effort to discredit the Jonathan leadership.
It was learnt at the weekend that some members of the group in the House of Representatives were responsible for the death of the Bill for the alteration of Section 144 of the Constitution, which would have legitimized the action of the National Assembly in addressing the power vacuum created by the absence of Yar’Adua.

The group, which met in a Minister’s house on Wednesday night, resolved to ensure the death of any bill to alter the Constitution to favour the resolution of the National Assembly authorizing Vice President Jonathan as Acting President.
The group was reportedly formed to counter the growing influence of the National Interest Group (NIG) led by Bala Mohammed, which ensured that the National Assembly passed the resolution empowering Jonathan.
But, the pro-Yar’Adua group is said to be hampered by revelations that Yar’Adua is still believed to be in coma.

It is, however, said to be working towards selling a dummy to Nigerians that the ailing leader was recuperating fast. Although details of the plan are still sketchy, it was learnt that an official in the President’s office and others in the office of the first lady were coordinating the new dummy.

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