Skip to main content

Health CRISIS Detains Yar Adua in Saudi Arabia State; Visit To Brazil Cancelled

August 25, 2008
Reports reaching SaharaReporters from Saudi Arabia indicate that Umaru Yar'Adua is in what our sources described as “a serious condition” at the Saudi German Hospital in Jeddah. Mr. Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia since Wednesday to undergo medical treatment for undisclosed ailments.

As a result of Mr. Yar’Adua’s continuing health crisis, his planned state visit to Brazil, previously scheduled to commence tomorrow, has been indefinitely postponed. Our sources also indicated that Yar' Adua's German doctors have not given a date for his departure from Saudi Arabia.

An official at the Presidency in Brazil told SaharaReporters that the protocol department in the office of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had received “advice from Nigerian authorities stating that the official arrival ceremony for President Umaru Yar'adua earlier scheduled for August 28th 2008 was postponed indefinitely.” The Brazilian official stated that no reasons were advanced for the postponement of Yar'adua's trip.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that Yar'adua's trip to Saudi Arabia was for medical treatment following a recent deterioration of his health.

Our sources within Aso Rock told SaharaReporters that Yar’adua’s close associates and his wife, Turai, had decided against sending him back to a German hospital. They reportedly feared that his sudden return to Germany might alarm the diplomatic community and create security problems for Yar'adua's presidency. Turai Yar’adua has rebuffed the pleas of some Northern politicians that her husband should resign and pay full attention to his recurrent health crises. She told them that, citing Generals Sani Abacha and Murtala Muhammed, that even if her husband died, he won’t be the first ruler to die in office.

After settling for the Saudi German Hospital in Jeddah, Yar'adua’s handlers issued a deceptive statement that he was going to one of the holy sites of Islam to observe the lesser hajj or umra. He was flown to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday night, a day later than originally scheduled. The trip was delayed in a desperate attempt to minimize the impact of an accurate report by this website that the trip was for Yar’adua’s medical treatment. The PDP even issued a statement claiming that Yar’adua would be in Calabar to campaign for Mr. Liyel Imoke, who is indicted by the House of Representatives’ committee that probed billions of dollars wasted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the name of power projects. But a source close to Yar’adua assured SaharaReporters that “President Yar’adua will collapse if he delays his trip by another day.” 

Yar'adua traveled with a few family members, including his wife and daughter, as well as his personal doctor, aide-de camp and two German doctors who had earlier flown into Nigeria to manage his deteriorating health condition.

An inside source who was briefed on the trip said Yar'adua was gasping for breath as he labored to board the plane, which was fitted with respiratory aid gadgets provided by the German doctors.

Signs that Yar'adua would not be able to make it to Brazil emerged yesterday when members of his advance party to Brazil were recalled to Abuja from Lagos. The delegation had planned to fly to Brazil via London.

But in a move designed to douse public suspicion, Attorney General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa was instructed to fly to London. The aim was to divert attention from the cancellation of the Brazilian trip.  Aondoakaa told aides and the Nigerian media that he was headed to join Yar'adua in Brazil. He claimed that Yar'adua was flying from Saudi Arabia.

However, SaharaReporters discovered that Aondoakaa did not leave the Heathrow Airport in London. Instead, he checked into the Heathrow Marriott Hotel from where he intends to visit his newly relocated children in London tomorrow.

Our source revealed that Yar'adua's associates were considering secretly flying him to Germany if his current health crisis persists or worsens.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });