Abuja, March 11: Hundreds of protesters on Thursday converged at Nigerian capital Abuja, demanding the public appearance of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the dissolution of the country’s cabinet for failing to remove him.
58-year-old Yar’Adua was airlifted back to Nigeria a few weeks ago from Saudi Arabia where he was undergoing treatment for pericarditis but his health condition is not clear and he had not made any public appearance since then.
The protesters sought to present their petitions personally to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan but secretary to the government, Yayale Ahmed, assured them to convey their demand to Jonathan, who was attending a high-level international conference on Agriculture.
“The acting president has asked me to assure you that your demands will be looked into with immediate effect. You want to know the status of health of the president… You will not be denied of it,” Ahmed said.
Yar’Adua’s return has fuelled speculations that his inner cabinet wanted to render the acting president irrelevant and his wife Turai has been accused of running a cabal that undermined Jonathan.
Recently, Information Minister Professor Dora Akunyili criticised the president’s inner cabinet of trying to make Jonathan “appear irrelevant”.
—Agencies