Jubilation, skirmishes in Taraba as Suntai returns today

Gov. Suntai

Excitement pervades Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, as the people await Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai today. He is billed to return to the state after a 10- month absence.
He is due to fly in from the United States of America (USA) where he has been receiving further treatment after his initial discharge from Germany.
He had been flown out of the country late last year following the multiple injuries he suffered in the October 25, 2012 plane crash at the Yola Airport.
The governor, a pilot, flew the plane.
With him in the ill-fated Cessna 208 aircraft were his Aide de Camp (ADC), Iliya Dasat, Chief Detail Joel Danladi and Chief Security Officer (CSO) Tino Dangana.
All the security aides have since recovered and returned to the country.
“The state is in the mood for a big celebration,” Commissioner for Information Emmanuel Bello told The Nation.
There were, jubilations in the streets and drinking joints all through Friday night to Saturday.
Bali –the local government area l of the governor- was most agog.
Suntai’s deputy, Alhaji Garba Umar, who has been acting, yesterday asked “every Taraba person” to “come out” and welcome the governor.
Umar said he wants to make his boss’ reception “very special.”
There were, however, skirmishes in some quarters between Suntai’s supporters and the acting governor’s.
Some people especially from Umar’s northern part of the state had wanted Suntai removed on health ground and Umar made substantive governor.
The move was fiercely resisted by Suntai’s supporters who alleged religious sentiments in the plot to remove him.
Suntai’s stickers were seen on his supporters’ vehicles, while Umar’s stickers adorned his supporters’ vehicles.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported from New York yesterday that Suntai will be departing the USA today for Jalingo on a chartered flight.
Quoting a family source, NAN said enough seats could not be secured for those accompanying Suntai, hence the chartered flight.
The source also said another reason was because all the commercial airlines operating direct flight from New York to Nigeria were fully booked.
He, however, declined to name the flight, airport and time of departure as well as the time of arrival in Jalingo, but said the governor’s wife, Hauwa, had left for home to prepare for the arrival of her husband.
The governor’s wife had in a telephone interview on Aug. 20 said that her husband was expected to depart the Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and Home, New York, on Aug. 25.
Suntai had spent four months at the rehabilitation centre, following injuries he sustained in an aircraft crash on his way to Yola on Oct. 25, 2012
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