The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday left Nigeria for London, United Kingdom, where he is scheduled to meet ailing President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari left the country on May 7 for the British capital where he is currently receiving medical treatment.
He had, in a communication to the two chambers of the National Assembly indicated that only his doctors would decide the duration of his medical trip which is the second one this year.
Our correspondent learnt that Osinbajo travelled to London to see the President shortly after he presided over the Quarterly Presidential Business Forum held at the Presidential Villa.
It was further learnt that the Acting President’s trip was at the instance of Buhari.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Acting President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, confirmed Osinbajo’s trip to London in a message on his Twitter handle.
Akande said Osinbajo would meet Buhari in London and return to the country immediately after the meeting.
He wrote, “Ag President Osinbajo meeting with President Buhari in London today, and returning to Abuja immediately afterwards.”
Since Buhari left the country for his medical trip, there have been some pending matters that Osinbajo has not attended to despite that the President formally handed over power to him.
For instance, Osinbajo has so far failed to inaugurate the two ministers who were on May 3 confirmed by the Senate, Stephen Ocheni (Kogi) and Suleiman Hassan (Gombe).
The slots of Kogi and Gombe states in the federal cabinet had been vacant following the death of the Minister of State for Labour, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN), in an accident on March 6, 2016; and the appointment of former Minister of the Environment, Amina Mohammed, as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Osinbajo had also failed to take a decision on the fate of the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; and the suspended Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke, despite heading the three-man panel that probed the two government officials.
Buhari had on April 19 suspended the two government officials and constituted a three-man committee led by Osinbajo to investigate them.
The panel investigated allegations of violations of law and due process made against Lawal in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North-East while it probed Oke on the discovery of large amount of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, for which NIA is laying claim.
There have been reports that despite formally handing over power to Osinbajo, some individuals being described as cabal members had been ruling the country by proxy.
Since he left, there have been no photographs of the President and visitors as was witnessed during his first medical trip this year.
This fuelled speculations that the President had been in bad shape.
His wife, Aisha, who joined him in London last Tuesday had however on Monday gave an indication that God had answered the prayers of Nigerians that had been praying for the recovery of the ailing President.
(Punch)
