Former Military Head of State and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, February 19, 2015 jetted out of the country to the United Kingdom (UK) for unspecified reasons.
According to Buhari’s campaign organisation, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), the General is on a ‘brief working visit’ to the UK ‘where he will hold meetings with several global institutions in the interest of Nigeria.’ Garba Shehu the, spokesman for the APCPCO was quoted as saying:
[pull_quote_center]General Buhari would hopefully give a talk at the prestigious foreign policy hub, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatam House in London.[/pull_quote_center]
However, insider sources within the Buhari campaign team tell The Trent, that the trip to the UK is connected to the deteriorating health condition of Buhari which has taken for the worse in the past two weeks. The campaign decided to whisk him out of the country to deceive secret medical attention away from the Nigerian media. This confirms earlier reports that the UK trip is a medical one.
Of growing concern within Buhari’s ranks is his failing health which the General had hoped to secretly attend to in the United States last month. But his application for a US medical visa leaked to the media and the General cancelled his trip to the US last month.
It would be recalled that General Buhari is reported to be suffering from prostrate cancer, a terminal illness and one of the most common forms of cancer in men.
A pro-Buhari political pressure group, Muslims For Buhari has recently been calling for prayers for the former Petroleum Trust Fund chairman as his health status has become more worrisome in recent times, which saw him collapse at a campaign rally in Calabar, Cross River State in January and more recently on Monday, February 16, 2015 when General Buhari was whisked away by his aides from his campaign rally in Borno State barely ten minutes after arriving the Ramat Square, venue for the campaign rally.
“The APC doesn’t want people to know our principal is a very sick man,” our source who works closely with the Buhari tells The Trent. “He is gravely ill and the shift of the election date had dealt a big blow to our plans to wrap up the campaign. The toll on our candidate is visible now.”
Our investigations also reveal that Buhari would also be consulting with international lawyers while in the UK over putting up a defence at the International Criminal Court on his behalf. Already, a petition of genocide and crimes against humanity has been filed at The Hague, Netherlands against Buhari over inciting his supporters to violence after losing the 2011 presidential election.
It can be recalled that families of the 800 victims who lost their lives of the violence unleashed in Northern states following General Buhari’s loss at the polls, in an election that was widely adjudged to be one of Nigeria’s freest and fairest, have filed a petition against Buhari at The Hague and want him tried for crimes against humanity. The petition and the campaign to have Buhari extradited to the Netherlands to face trial is gathering momentum and it is now a source of worry for the APC.
“Buhari will also be meeting secretly with international lawyers to see how the case at the International Criminal Court can be dealt with,” our source, who works on Buhari’s strategy team, told The Trent “Though the APC is refusing to comment on the International Criminal Court issue in Nigeria, it is source of concern for us because it is one issue that will linger on after the elections whether we win or lose.”
