Sep 22nd 2013, 23:00, by online@ngrguardiannews.com (From Charles Akpeji, Jalingo)
GOVERNOR Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State has thanked Nigerians for their steadfastness in collective and individual prayers, which made it possible for him and his three aides to survive the October 25, 2012 plane crash.
Speaking Sunday while hosting a group of sacked commissioners and advisers in his residence in the Government House, Suntai wondered what would have become of him had the people not supplicated for God's intervention.
The governor seemed to have significantly recovered his speech and sense of identification, as he not only identified each member of his former cabinet by name, but also engaged some of them in jokes.
Optimistic that the ongoing impasse in the state would soon end, Suntai expressed the need for all, irrespective of religion, political party or ethnic differences, to embrace peace in order to take the state to the heights.
Meanwhile, one of the former commissioners, Rebo Usman, who told The Guardian that they visited to ascertain the governor's true state of health, wondered why "they said he cannot talk and cannot even recognize things." He noted: "With what we saw today, I think such persons are not fair to him at all.
"Governor Suntai I saw with my naked eyes today is fit to perform his official responsibilities. As you have seen, he did not only call us by our names, he also went as far as cracking jokes with us. So tell me what else they needed from him before they would allow him to start discharging his assigned constitutional responsibilities?"
The former government functionaries on the visit included Anthony Jellason (Agriculture), Iliya Wanapia (Finance), Dr. Yakubu Tor-Agbidye (Tourism), Beatrice Kitchener (Women Affairs), Simon Jatutu (Health and Christian Religious Affairs), Rebecca Manasseh (Political Affairs) and Abba Akawu (Labour Matters).
