News: Tinubu returns from 'vacation': PDP insists he is ill & begs Lagosians to pray for him

Co-founder of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, is back in the country.

Speaking on his arrival Thursday night at the Executive landing strip, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Tinubu said he was never sick before he traveled or at anytime during his travels.

There had been doubts over his health status but the politician stated that “I’m as fit as a fiddle. There was nothing wrong before I left the country.

“We had the Osun gubernatorial election and I’d planned a long vacation and some other research assignments in the political arena. It was to learn from people who had experienced the development of opposition parties in the past.

“I don’t have to disclose to people my vacation location. But it was very shocking and sad that there were speculations about my health. This a sign of the lack of trust people have for leadership in the country.

“When I had the knee problem, I disclosed to Nigerians that I was going for a knee surgery and I came back. Even then, they started peddling rumours. I don’t know whether some people deliberately insinuate that I have a medical problem. It seems like a deliberate falsehood to me. It is all lies.

“There was no day that I had the need for even Panadol since I left this country for this trip. I was very busy, reading and talking to people of great intelligence that I believe I could gain from politically”.

He replied those who said he was critically ill, saying “May God Almighty forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing. And I wish them all they wish for me”.

On the state of the nation, Tinubu reiterated that the the answer to Nigeria’s woes is ouster of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“The entire nation has lost its trust in the ruling party,” he said.

“It is a challenging time and we have to be very careful. The APC has all the ingredients to save Nigeria and we shall save our dear country”.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Lagos State chapter on Thursday insisted that the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is still ill and needs urgent prayers from Lagosisians.

The party called on residents to pray for Tinubu’s quick recovery, even as it claimed he was jetted out of the country for treatment in a London hospital.

The PDP asked Tinubu’s family and the Lagos State Government not to be secretive about the health condition of the former governor.

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taofik Gani, the party said Lagosians were interested in knowing the true state of health of the former governor “whose medical bill is being paid with their taxes.”

He said, “We wish the former governor, Bola Tinubu, quick recovery as we are made to know from the grapevine that he is ill and in a hospital outside the country. We also feel that the family and the state government should have the obligation to let Lagosians know the actual state of his health.

“It will not be a bad thing if the former governor appears on television or speaks on phone for broadcast. Indeed Lagosians are humanitarian and would readily support him in prayers. Such honest disclosure will also dispel rumours of his death or paralysis that is being spread around”.

There had been doubts over Tinubu’s health status but the politician insisted that, “I’m as fit as a fiddle. There was nothing wrong with me before I left the country”.