…Family warned to evacuate ex-president 3
weeks before death – PFN scribe
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may
not have died had the family heeded the
advice to evacuate him from Aso Rock
Presidential Villa, Abuja three weeks before he
died.
National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of
Nigeria (PFN), Pastor Emmanuel Nuhu Kure,
one of the four pastors who visited the Villa to
pray for Yar’Adua at the height of his sickness
in 2010, disclosed this at the weekend.
The three other pastors were Bishop David
Oyedepo of the Living Faith World Outreach,
aka Winners Chapel; Cardinal John Onaiyekan,
the Catholic Bishop of Abuja; and erstwhile Aso
Rock Chaplain, Prof. Yusuf Obaje. The pastors
visited the seat of power for the prayer session
after Yar’Adua was flown back from Saudi
Arabia where he had been taken for treatment
for an undisclosed illness.
Late President Yar’Adua
The PFN National Secretary said he told the
Yar’Adua family at the meeting that there was
the need to take the president out of Aso Rock
within three weeks to keep him alive.
According to him, however, they shunned the
advice as they were afraid that President
Goodluck Jonathan, then vice president, would
take over (power) if they took him out of the
Villa immediately.
“Of course, I was not obeyed and exactly three
weeks after that visit, he died”, Kure, based in
Kafanchan, Kaduna State, but spoke to Sunday
Vanguard in Lagos, last week, said.
Narrating what transpired at the prayer session
for Yar’Adua, which he claimed lasted about 10
minutes, “sharp and straight to the point”, the
PFN leader said: “When we went in there, they
pulled me aside and said the reason you are
here sir, go beyond that, can God show mercy?
Can God change these things? It’s like deep
inside of them, they felt he (Yar’Adua) might
not survive. And they had the right to ask God
for mercy. That was why they called in the
Muslims and the Christians”.
He continued: “So I knew my own mission but
I sensed things do not happen like that and I
told them what would make him escape death.
I told them privately. That is, me and them, it
had nothing to do with the four (he and the
other pastors). My reason for being called was
slightly different from the other three. I think
Oyedepo was called because of the miracles
(he was performing) in the Living Faith Church.
We were called in because they believed we
have access to God and that we could pray
some effective prayers that would help the
matter.
‘Not politically convenient’
“I told them the Lord said that within three
weeks they should take him out of the Villa to
somewhere he’d be without pressure. That was
the time the polity was heating up. I told them
to take him away from there (Aso Rock)
because while there within those three weeks,
even if as much as one mosquito bite him, he
would die. I told them I saw only three weeks.
So if they had taken him out within those three
weeks, maybe God would have shown mercy
and given him some rest and added some time
to his life.
“I don’t know how much, I’m not God. I’m just
an oracle who spoke for that season. And the
understanding I got later, I was told they
couldn’t take him out because it was not
politically convenient. They were afraid that
Jonathan would take over if they took him out
immediately. He kept him there to ensure that
Jonathan did not take over even when it was to
the detriment of his health. Maybe it was a
tactical move; the wife had no say in the
matter”.
Captivity
Exonerating the former president’s wife, Turai,
from blame over the failure to move Yar’Adua
from Aso Rock as advised, Kure said, “Nigerian
politicians are very complicated and
sophisticated people when they know their
interests are at stake; they will use you to
remain relevant. They will keep you there until
they get what they want. I think she was also
in captivity.
“Of course she would have wanted her
husband to live; she would have wanted to
remain the first lady naturally. Let’s not
pretend about these things. Constitutionally it
was not her call; it was the politicians’ call
which was what the people in the National
Assembly and Nigerians were making that, `let
the constitution have its way’. It was a
constitutional call, it was not her call”… FULL
INTERVIEW NEXT WEEK!
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