The health of the newly appointed
Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr.
Umaru Dikko, is giving some members of the party a cause for concern.
It was learnt on Thursday that Dikko, who was the Minister of
Transport during the Second Republic, had gone to seek medical attention for an
undisclosed ailment in a London hospital.
Dikko, 77, was recently appointed to
head the PDP committee by the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
A family source, who pleaded
anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue,
confirmed this to one of our correspondents in Kaduna.
The source told our correspondent
that the Second Republic minister was indeed receiving medical attention in
England following an ailment he was not at liberty to disclose.
The source said, “We learnt he is
getting better now and we pray he will be around during Sallah (after the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan).
“You know, he has not been feeling
well for some time, so he went to England. Maybe he will be back before the
Sallah celebration.”
The source, however, could not say
which hospital the former minister was receiving treatment.
It was gathered that Dikko is suffering
from an ailment often associated with old age. He was first treated for the
said ailment a few months ago.
A medical doctor familiar with the
case confided in one of our correspondents that “he suffered from the ailment
(name withheld) a few months ago, but he made sufficient recovery.
“However, the problem with this
particular ailment is that, it often re-occurs, especially if the patient has
reached a certain age.”
There are fears that the chairman’s
state of health could adversely affect the committee’s work.
It was gathered that the leadership
of the party was considering the possibility of asking the committee’s Deputy
Chairman, King A.J. Turner, to act as the chairman, if Dikko had failed to
return before the inauguration of the panel.
However, the PDP dismissed
insinuations that the work of the disciplinary committee would suffer because
of Dikko’s state of health.
The Acting Publicity Secretary of the
PDP, Mr. Tony Okeke, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the
party was hopeful that the former minister would return to the country before
the committee’s inauguration.
He said, “The committee has not been
inaugurated and I’m sure that before the inauguration is done, he would return
to the country and would do a good job.”
Other members of the committee are
Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun; Hajiya Nana Ayishat Kadiri;
Hussaini Diraki and Senator Emmanuel Agboti (Secretary).
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