The Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, has denied media reports that he declared his principal, recuperating Governor Danbaba Suntai missing.
Yesterday, we reported that while speaking with journalists in Jalingo, the state capital, to commemorate the Eid-el-Kabir celebration, Garba had said his boss was missing since his hurried return from the UK where he was undergoing treatment by a cabal last month, in order to stall his purported removal from office as a result of his mental state of health.
But the acting governor denied the statement credited to him, saying he only told journalists that he was shielded from seeing Suntai when he came back from his overseas treatment.
Mr. Garba, who spoke through his Special Adviser, Media, Mr. Aaron Artimas, said he was quoted out of context.
Artimas said, “The acting governor held a Sallah diner with correspondents and before he started, he told them that he would not like to entertain any question on his boss. But they pleaded with him and told him that they would ask him soft questions.
“When they asked him question about Danbaba, he told them that he was at the airport to receive him and actually sighted the ailing governor but he was shielded from from Danbaba. The acting governor did not, at any time, say that Danbaba is missing. This is a very serious interpretatiom, which will not be taken kindly”.