SUPREME COURT RULING MAY FAVOR YAR’ADUA

…As Yar’Adua lobbies Justices

…Spends $10 Million on Treatment

President Yar'Adua

For Nigerians, the long wait on a legitimate elected leadership may soon be over as the country’s Supreme Court looks set to return a verdict of victory for President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. This is even as a combined team of German and Saudi medical Doctors on Thursday conducted series of test on the President.

Individuals who have had close contact with President Yar’Adua in recent times claim that he remains frail and sickly. Mr. Yar’Adua was said to have had very limited public appearance on Wednesday during which time the Doctors were able to run the latest medical test on him.

He is expected to leave the country for a more comprehensive test as soon as the Supreme Court delivers judgment on the 2007 Presidential election.

According to sources, the President’s health bill may have added an extra $10 Million to the expenses of Nigerian tax payers. Chiefly, the money went into procuring medicines, flying in of expatriates Doctors and related personnel.

Prior to last weeks comprehensive medical examination of the President, there had been concerns that he was having some prescribed doses of steroids. But an Aso Rock source told pointblanknews.com that the President regimen of pills “did not go beyond what was recommended by his Doctors.”

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Effectively, Yar’Adua was able to attend to visiting German President, Mr. Horst Kohler. The President also attended the Ju’mat Prayers. He had resisted every attempt to be flown abroad for further medical treatment in the last six weeks because he and his political allies did not trust the verdict that could come from the challenge to his election instituted by opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari.

Buoyed by the medical result all the Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria moved swiftly for unanimity ahead of an expected judgment on the legitimacy of Yar’Adua’s Government this month. Initial feelers showed that at least three of the seven Supreme Court Justices expressed strong misgivings about the degree of alleged electoral malpractices during Yar’Adua’s context with Buhari, Atiku and others in 2007.

However Justices, A I Kastina-Alu, Justice G.A Oguntade, Justice Dahiru Musdapher who were said to be crucial to the crafting of the lead and majority decision on the case were said to have successfully convinced their colleagues that the plaintiffs were not able to convinced the court on the merit of their case against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, its chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Attaining the near impossible was not easy for the court. At least the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and two other prominent presidential legal aides reportedly worked to persuade the court to thwart Atiku and Buhari’s formidable challenges. Although, the decision of the Apex court remains a closely guided secret. Pointblanknews.com got a rear gist about the direction of things. It looks like dead end for the ambition of Atiku and Buhari. The court in its wisdom may have extrapolated that “given that there were malpractices as alleged by Buhari and Atiku, neither of them would have polled enough votes to substantiate their allegation.”

Yar’Adua is therefore firmly back on the saddle of Nigeria’s leadership.

FACES OF PRO-YAR’ADUA SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

Justice Kastina Alu	Justice Niki Tobi	Justice Musdapher