INJURED GEJ CAMPAIGNERS TO BE FLOWN ABROAD

PRESIDENT Go...odluck Jonathan's Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (Tan) officials may be flying some of the people who sustained severe injuries when its stage collapsed at a political rally in Minna over the weekend to the UK for medical treatment. On Saturday, a Tan rally taking place in Minna, the Niger State capital, had to be stopped halfway through the programme as the podium gave way under the weight of the guests. Some of the victims sustained backbone and spinal cord related injuries that may require medical attention abroad, although no life has so far been so far. Following the accident, Niger State governor Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, instructed that those with serious injuries were transferred from Minna General Hospital to the IBB Specialist Hospital. after being checked, some with severe injuries were later moved to Abuja for comprehensive medical attention on the orders of the governor. It was originally thought that the governor's wife Hajiya Jumai Aliyu was among the seriously injured but Dr Aliyu said she is safe and well. However, some of the less fortunate victims like the secretary of Campaign for Democracy in Niger State, Comrade Mohammed Abdullahi Jabi has been transferred to an Indian Hospital in Abuja because his injuries are more complex. He was initially taken to the National Hospital, Abuja alongside other seriously injured victims where the doctors confirmed that he had serious backbone injury but his spinal cord was not affected. Some of these victims may now be flown to the UK and India where they will receive specialist treatment. Comrade Jabi said: “I have been moved from the National Hospital to an Indian hospital in Karu. After an X-ray examination, doctors said I have fraction in backbone but it has not affected my spine cord." Governor Aliyu added: “ I read in some newspapers that my wife was badly injured and I wonder where all that was coming from. Let me therefore make it categorically clear that she was not injured and after the rally we were together to visit victims at the hospital." Meanwhile, the Niger State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the collapse of the pavilion was the product of the corruption that has been the trademark of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and by extension Tan. Jonathan Vatsa, the publicity secretary of the APC's Niger State chapter, said that despite the fact that it was obvious that those who constructed the pavilion were using public funds from Abuja, they still risked people lives to construct a faulty structure. "It is the way the PDP promotes corruption that their supportive organisations like Tan are also clothed in corruption. First of all let us ask them where did they get this money, as you could see no natural crowd there and they went and hired students from tertiary institutions to fill the gap, yet they did shoddy jobs to risk their lives," Mr Vatsa added.