Taraba Governor Danbaba Suntai Reportedly Brain-Damaged

Taraba Governor Danbaba Suntai Reportedly Brain-Damaged

Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State, who was seriously injured when his plane crashed on October 25 in Yola, capital of Adamawa State, has reportedly suffered extensive brain damage and even failed to recognize members of a presidential delegation that visited him at a hospital in Hanover, Germany, an authoritative source has told SaharaReporters.

A source close to a senior member of the delegation which was led by Senate President, David Mark, included Governor Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna State, President Goodluck Jonathan’s chief of staff, Mike Oghiadomhe, also on the delegation was John Kennedy Opara, the secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC) and the Chaplain of the Presidential Villa Chapel, Venerable Obioma Onwuzurumba, described the trip to see Mr. Suntai as highly secretive. SaharaReporters learnt that members of the delegation had officially traveled to Vatican City in Rome to witness the consecration of Archbishop John Onaiyekan as a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. After the ceremony in Italy, the delegation then made a quick detour to Germany to see the injured Mr. Suntai.

Our source said members of the delegation were shocked to see Mr. Suntai in a vegetative state. “His condition was so bad that they could not publicly disclose his condition after they returned to Nigeria,” said the source.

Since Mr. Suntai’s airlift to Germany, officials of the Taraba State government have engaged in propaganda, claiming that the governor was making remarkable recovery. But our sources, including an official of the state government, admitted that Mr. Suntai’s mental faculty had deteriorated since the accident and that his memory was virtually impaired.

“It is possible that he suffered brain damage because there was some delay before he could be taken abroad,” said a state official.

A Taraba-born political activist who is based in Abuja, has likened the present hide and seek game on the status of the Taraba state governor to the days of late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua when his true state of health was concealed from Nigerians in order to prevent his vice, Goodluck Jonathan from being sworn-in as acting president.

According to him: “We all know how President Umaru Yar’Adua’s people continued to deceive Nigerians that the man was recovering well and how they even brought him back in a comatose state and declared that he was in control of Nigeria,” said the activist. He added: “I hope President Jonathan and the PDP are not planning a similar scenario whereby they will declare that Governor Suntai is in control – until they find a malleable successor who suits them.

“The fact that the people of Taraba have not heard from or seen the governor since the air crash on October 25 2012 means that the man is no longer fit to govern them,” he said.

Culled From Saharareporters