Yar'Adua was overpowered, tied and injected, says brother
By Bayo Ohu, Asst. News Editor
WEAKENED by the Ramadan fast as he was, they overpowered him, tied his hands behind his back and then administered the fatal injection...
So the story went at the weekend as the Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua recounted to The Guardian, the last days of his late elder brother and former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Maj.-Gen. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua.
According to Umaru, the late politician who was then serving a life sentence in the Abakaliki Prison for his alleged involvement in a coup to topple the then military Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha, was injected at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
He died three days later, the governor said.
"When I went to see him at Enugu Prisons, he (Gen. Yar'Adua) told me that he had been injected and that he did not know what he had been injected with. He told me further that he was about to break his fast when some people came and took him to the Government House, Port Harcourt.
"At the Government House, he was overpowered and they tied his two hands behind him after which one of the people approached to introduce himself as a medical doctor who was going to take his blood sample to see and ascertain his condition on being transferred. It was after the injection that he was given something to break his fast."
Umaru, who lamented the inhuman and undignified treatment meted out to the late politician by the administration of the late Abacha said the government adopted and pursued a deliberate policy to deny his brother medical attention even at a time the General's health was in a critical condition.
According to him: "When I got to know that my brother was sick, I went to Abakaliki to see him and the condition I met him was very critical and there was no doubt that he needed to be taken to the hospital for a proper and thorough medical examination but help was not forthcoming from the authorities."
The governor said even though he made several efforts to reach the authorities through those he felt could speak to the Head of State and other officials at the Villa, nobody seemed prepared to help in getting him (Yar'Adua) to the hospital.
"But by morning when they decided to take him to the Enugu Teaching Hospital, it was too late to do anything because he was already in a coma and actually before he got to the hospital, he was dead and when the doctors arrived to examine him, they found that he had already died", Umaru added.
While denying that the General was involved in any coup, Umaru said: "I know my brother very well and one of the things he always told me when he sent me a note was to assure me that he did not know anything about any coup plot and this is the fact.
"But the whole truth has come out now because everybody has known that the alleged coup plot was a ploy to eliminate and get rid of some people who were perceived to be enemies of the administration," he stated.
He explained that the late Yar'Adua would have agreed to the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) zoning of the Presidency to the South in 1999 and would have also been very glad to serve under President Olusegun Obasanjo as Vice President and Chief aide.
This, according to the governor, is because of the late Yar'Adua's commitment to the peace and stability of Nigeria and the greater respect he had for President Olusegun Obasanjo, who he pointed out, is the only man he (late Yar'Adua) called his boss and from whom, besides his late father, Alhaji Musa Yar'Adua, he took permission on any decision or action to be taken.`
