Yar’Adua arrives amid heavy security

President Umaru Yar’Adua returned to the country this morning, 91 days after his departure to Saudi Arabia to attend to his failing health.
He left Abuja on November 23, 2009. Mr. President is suffering from acute pericarditis.

Indications that the president would return today emerged last night as security was beefed up at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja. Reporters who had swarmed the place were restricted while only top government functionaries were allowed entry into the presidential wing of the airport.

Two companies of soldiers were deployed to the airport hours to the arrival. They were armed to the teeth and never allowed any one within shouting distance to the aircraft.

First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, arrived in one of the aircraft.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Adamu Aliero, arrived at the airport in a jeep at 12.40 a.m. without the usual siren. A lot of Mr. President’s political associates were on hand to receive him.

At about 1.42a.m., an aircraft believed to be carrying the president arrived. Almost immediately, an ambulance drove in and parked beside it ostensibly to shield him from the prying eyes of reporters who had been waiting for his arrival.

The ambulance drove straight to another part of the tarmac to join a long convoy of other vehicles that had by now turned off their headlamps.

At 1.55a.m., the second aircraft believed to be conveying ministers arrived. Earlier, a report monitored on Al-Jazeera television said two planes had left the Jeddah Airport.
Security men cordoned off both the departure/arrival halls of the airport. Saudi doctors had arrived the country earlier.

Contrary to claims by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdullahi Aminchi that he saw the president on Saturday and that he was recuperating fast, Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that the information may afterall be a ruse, as findings revealed that the President’s health has taken a nosedive.
However, plans to ‘package’ him back to Aso Rock, observer said, was in a desperate bid by elements close to the president to supplant Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and ensure he does not function as acting president.

Another source told Daily Sun Yar’Adua was actually given a quit notice by the Saudi Arabia based on the fact that he has been on life machine for so long.

However, this is even as a source insisted tha the President’s health condition started deteriorating in the early hours of Saturday, which prompted the medical team to re-introduce some drugs that had earlier been discontinued.

Specifically, it was gathered that the medical team had equally brought in a higher version of a life support machine different from the one that had been used prior to yesterday, a clear indication that the President’s health was not in anyway improving.

The source added that currently, the President can neither talk nor eat.
Information available to Daily Sun indicated that the President is currently weighing less than 40 kilograms with no assurance that he can garner more weight in the next couple of weeks due to fatigue.
Daily Sun equally learnt that the President’s medical team is in a fix as regards the next line of action, since all efforts to make his health condition improve have proved abortive.

In this regard, the medical team, according to the source, was considering the option of bringing in some medical experts from the UK, US and Israel to help in finding a lasting solution to Yar’Adua’s health crises.
The source explained that the team has been in constant touch with the foreign medical team for some time and they have also been around on two occasions but had to leave when there were signs that he was responding to treatment.

The idea to bring back the medical team heightened yesterday when the first lady began to feel very uncomfortable about her husband’s health condition, even though there were assurances from the medical team that he would get better.

But a competent source at the Presidency disclosed yesterday that President Yar’Adua has been placed on rechargeable chips to keep some organs functioning.
“What we hear from Saudi is worrisome, the report is shocking. Right now, the president’s life is now on rechargeable chips. The chips are programmed, any day the chips packed up, that is the end,” the source said.

The source, who was in constant touch with one of the groups of Consultant Cardiologists who first treated President Yar’Adua when he arrived Saudi Arabia confirmed that the only way the president could be moved was to hire a Boeing 777 Air ambulance fully equipped as a hospital.
According to him, the immediate family of the president in Saudi Arabia is aware of his precarious situation and that they have intensified prayers for his recovery.

However, Saudi monarch, King Fahd Abdulaziz has ordered the removal of the ailing President from the Royal Fahd Military Hospital to an undisclosed guest house where chartered cardiologists are dotting over him.

Daily Sun had exclusively reported last week that Yar’Adua had been moved to a guarded military hospital on the order of King Fahd.
The movement was one of the reasons no delegation from Nigeria was able to see him since he left Nigeria on November 23, 2009.

Among the delegations that had visited Saudi Arabia without seeing the president are the team from the Governors’ Forum, the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a delegation from the House of Representatives.

Sunnews