Afrivibes

Governor Suntai May Be On Way Out As Taraba Assembly Constitutes Panel On His Fitness

Signs emerged yesterday that the cabal in Taraba State funded by retired army General, Theophilus Danjuma, has perhaps overplayed in its farcical effort to restore brain-injured Governor Danbaba Suntai as the governor of the state. The cabal recently flew Mr.
By SaharaReporters, New York Sep 20, 2014

Signs emerged yesterday that the cabal in Taraba State funded by retired army General, Theophilus Danjuma, has perhaps overplayed in its farcical effort to restore brain-injured Governor Danbaba Suntai as the governor of the state. The cabal recently flew Mr. Suntai back to the state from London where he had been receiving additional treatment since June. Danbaba Suntai

In a bid to resolve the lingering dispute over the governor’s readiness to resume in office, the Taraba State House of Assembly has constituted a five-man medical panel to determine Mr. Suntai’s fitness.

The governor had sustained serious physical and mental injuries in late October, 2012 when a plane he was piloting crash-landed while descending into Yola Airport in Adamawa State. Since the accident, Mr. Suntai has remained in poor health, with limited physical movement and visible mental handicaps, despite months of treatment in hospitals in Germany, the US, and the UK.

Despite his compromised mental capacity, a cabal close to the governor had tried to create the impression that Mr. Suntai was ready to resume duties as governor. Former General Danjuma, who made billions of dollars in the oil sector, is the major source of funds for the small but powerful cabal, made up of the governor’s wife and other political cohorts in the state. The group, which is determined to wrest political power from the state’s acting governor, has rigged media interviews for the governor and released statements ostensibly authorized by Mr. Suntai's wife in its effort to portray him as mentally competent.

But two members of the state assembly told SaharaReporters that the group will now be put in the position of proving in an open, transparent and incontrovertible manner that Mr. Suntai is physically and mentally fit to undertake the demanding duties of a governor.

The committee to determine Mr. Suntai’s medical fitness is headed by a neurosurgeon, Bello Bala Shehu, a former director at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Other members are Inusa Samaila, another professor, Peter Alabi, Shehu Sule, and the governor’s personal physician, Ahmed Kara.

A short statement released by the speaker of the Taraba State Assembly, Josiah Sabo Kente, said the decision to set up the committee was taken according to sections 189 (1)(b) and 189(4) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999.

SaharaReporters learned that the speaker’s statement was written on September 13, 2014 but that members of the cabal had pressured the speaker not to publicize the move.

On arrival in Abuja last weekend, Mr. Suntai was unable to speak coherently. Unaware that he had flown from London, he told reporters at the Abuja residence of former General Danjuma that he was coming from Abuja. He remains stuck in Abuja, unable to make it to Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.