Family members and aides of injured Kogi State Governor
Idris Wada have expressed worry over the safety of the governor who is being
treated in a private hospital in Abuja.
Wada was critically injured in an auto
crash last Friday on Ajaokuta-Lokoja Road. and has been receiving treatment in
Cedecrest Hospital, Garki, Abuja. His aide-de-camp, Idris Mohammed, an
Assistant Superintendent of Police, died in the accident while many others in
the governor’s convoy sustained varying degrees of injuries.
The PUNCH learnt that family members and
aides had been uncomfortable with the number of visitors to the governor’s sick
bed in the hospital in a week that security agencies had reportedly been
battling to curtail bomb plots in the Federal Capital Territory during the
yuletide.
Though Cedercrest Hosiptal is located in a serene
neighbourhood, Wada’s family members and aides had complained that there had
been easy access to the place and that the clinic did not have the privacy the
governor deserved.
One of the governor’s security personnel who
spoke to one of our correspondents in confidence, on Sunday, confirmed that
Wada’s men were not comfortable with his safety in the private hospital
The source said, “There is pressure from visitors
and there is difficulty in controlling the number of people who are coming to see
the governor and some of them are friends he had known from childhood and you
can’t just turn them back.
“It is like a village situation. If somebody is
sick in the village, people will surround him and even suffocate him, yet he
won’t bother. But that is not good enough for the security of the governor.”
The Senate President, David Mark;
Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar; state governors, senators and
several members of the House of Representative had reportedly viited the
governor in the hospital in the past three days.
Armed mobile policemen, personal aides and
other hangers-on were seen at the Cedarcrest hospital on Sunday when one of our
correspondents visited the medical centre.
The policemen who manned the hospital gate
screened visitors to the hospital, but most people were given access because
the clinic also catered to other patients.
Our correspondents learnt that there had been
talks by the governor’s family to fly him abroad for further treatment against
Wada’s preference to be treated in Nigeria.
But when contacted, the Governor’s Special
Adviser (Media and Strategy), Mr. Jacob Edi, told our correspondent that the
state government was very comfortable with the crowd coming to see Wada.
“Everything is comfortably under control. We love
the crowd and it shows that we are not alone in this trying moment because
everybody has a trying moment. The calibre of men and women that are coming
here tells us that His Excellency, Captain Idris Wada, is not just an ordinary
governor,” Edi said.
Meanwhile, the Kogi State Commissioner for
Health, Dr. Idris Omede, has said that the governor’s leg would not be
amputated, contrary to speculations.
Omede also said that there had been no friction
between Wada’s family members and the state government over medical treatment
in a foreign country.
In a telephone interview with one of our
correspondents, the commissioner described the governor’s state of health as
“very sound and excellent.”
He said, “The Governor is receiving treatment in
the same place. I am not aware of any division among the family members and the
state government over overseas treatment. I also spoke with him today and he
used my phone to speak with people,” he said.
“The man has a fracture and it has been operated
upon, reduced, fixed and closed. So, whether it is damaged is not the issue.
The leg is not amputated; the leg is not going to be amputated. The governor is
hale and healthy and his legs are not in any form of danger.”
Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment