Reps to submit report of Saudi trip tomorrow – The Nation

The report of a five-member team of the House of Representatives who went on a goodwill visit to ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia will be submitted tomorrow, it was learnt yesterday.

The team who returned on Saturday without seeing President Yar’Adua were said to have been denied access to him.

The lawmakers were however said to have met with the First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia .

Though most members looked forward to the presentation of the report by leader of delegation, Deputy House Leader, Hon. Baba-Shehu Agaie, the controversial trip was not mentioned.

Agaie and four other members who made the trip merely exchanged greetings, with their colleagues in the chamber.

Govs head for S’Arabia to brief Yar’Adua – The Guardian

As Dr. Goodluck Jonathan settles down as Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a delegation of governors has left Abuja for Saudi Arabia to see ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Jonathan presided over the Federal Executive council (FEC) meeting yesterday in his new capacity.

The governors’ mission is said to be essentially to officially break to the President and his family the news of the decision of the National Assembly and the factors that led to it.

Those who were at the Abuja airport on their way out yesterday were Governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina State), Gabriel Suswam (Benue) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), who is also married to one of the President’s daughters. They were supposed to have left on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s resolutions in the National assembly, but the chartered aircraft they were supposed to use developed a fault and the trip was shifted till yesterday.

The Guardian had reported last Tuesday that a delegation of some Nigerian officials was to leave the country for Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the President’s family, aides and associates.

Power belongs to God, PDP tells VP – Vanguard

National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Vincent Ogbulafor, yesterday, urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to wait for God’s intervention as power belongs to God.

This is coming on the heels of repeated calls by eminent Nigerians, Civil Society organizations, media chiefs and other bodies across the country, that President Umaru Yar’Adua, who has been away in Saudi Arabia on medical attention, in the last 73 days, should properly hand over power to Vice President Jonathan in acting capacity.

Ogbulafor, in a statement titled “Goodwill message from the Peoples’ Democratic Party to the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, GCON,” said: “Furthermore, the words of the Holy Scripture in Psalm 62:11 are apt for this moment, that ‘God has spoken once, twice, I have heard this: That power belongs to God.’”

FEC resolution divides PDP NWC members – Daily Trust

Last week’s resolution of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which gave ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’adua a clean bill of health has divided the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Daily Trust got the clue on this development at a meeting summoned by the national leadership of the PDP with the leadership of the National Assembly and some key Ministers in the Yar’adua government.

The meeting, which held at the residence of the PDP National Chairman Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, was attended by Senate President David Mark, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and the House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole.

Also at the meeting were Justice Minister and Attorney General of the Federation Mike Aondoakaa; Minister of Agriculture Abba Sayyadi Ruma and the Chief Economic Adviser to the President Dr. Taminu Yakubu.

PDP disagrees with Senate on Yar’Adua – The Nation

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday rejected the decision of the Senate that ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua should obey Section 145 of the Constitution by transmitting a letter to the National Assembly for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to act in his stead.

The PDP praised the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for obeying Justice Dan Abutu’s ruling on Yar’Adua’s health status, but said it was not the duty of the Senate to urge Yar’Adua to transmit power to Jonathan.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Prof Rufai Ahmed Alkali told reporters in Abuja that there was “no major gap” between the stand of FEC and that of the Senate, adding that the latter only advised Yar’Adua because the “court did not direct the Senate to do or say anything for now”.

Yar’Adua dilemma: Way out – The Guardian

Nigerians in search of their President, the waiting continues. For the ailing President, the pressure continues.

Twenty-four hours after the nation’s highest legislative body asked ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to do the needful by transmitting a letter to the National Assembly in line with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, a group of prominent Nigerians, including former President Shehu Shagari, former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, former Head of Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan, former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, three former Chief Justices, former Defence Minister, Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, has made the same call.

In separate letters to Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and signed by Gen. Gowon on behalf of the Eminent Elders Group (EEG), it recommended: “It is important to resolve this issue (of Acting President pending the return of the President) by inviting the President to formally issue the necessary communication that will enable the Vice President to be Acting President in accordance with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution as soon as possible.”

The eminent citizens also met with Vice President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja .

Yar’adua: Buhari, Atiku want 15-man team to Saudi Arabia – Daily Trust

Former Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar led other top politicians in the country to the National Assembly yesterday to call on the Federal Government to constitute a 15-man investigation team to visit President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in Saudi Arabia.

In a position under the auspices of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) presented to Senate President David Mark yesterday signed by General Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the group of politicians said the step has become necessary as a disconnect now exists between President Yar’adua and the people of Nigeria.

The movement suggested that government must activate the provision of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution which deals with situations that involve incapacitation of Mr. President as a result of ill health.

It said the team of 15 credible persons to Saudi Arabia should be made up of a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, one member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the President’s personal physician and other highly respected and independent medical practitioners nominated by Nigeria Medical Association (NMA).

Others to be on the team as proposed by NDM include the Majority and Minority Leaders of both chambers of the National Assembly and one representative each from the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), National Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) and the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS).