Minister Of Education Trip To London Hospital Choreographed As Hospital Claims Micheal Chinda Discharged On Saturday

Posted: July 24, 2013 -

Wike and his crew pose with "bedridden" Rivers lawmaker Michael Chinda in a choreographed hospital visit last Saturday in Londo

By SaharaReporters, New York

SaharaReporters investigations show that recuperating Rivers State legislator, Michael Chinda, was discharged from London’s Bupa Cromwell Hospital on Saturday moments after Nigeria's Minister of State for Education, Nyeson Wike, took a delegation there on a courtesy visit and posed for pictures by his bedside.
A hospital official told our correspondent this morning that Mr. Chinda had since been discharged because he did not have any life-threatening injuries.
The photos that were circulated by Mr. Wike last Sunday showed a group of political operatives from Rivers State, led by the deputy Minister, in the hospital room.  The pictures were choreographed to present Mr. Chinda as having suffered grave injuries in the brutal attack in the House of Assembly, and become bedridden. 
The minister’s delegation trip to London was reportedly bankrolled by Mr. Wike’s office and the presidency, costing Nigerian taxpayers several thousands of British pounds in flight, food and hotel accommodation.  Ironically, it was also made at a time Nigerian universities had been shut down due to lack of funding from the government.
A medical source told Saharareporters that the principal reason behind the Minister’s sponsorship of Mr. Chinda trip was to garner sympathy for the five lawmakers that invaded the Rivers House of Assembly in an attempt to overthrow the Speaker and later impeach Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
It is unclear if Mr. Chinda returned to Nigeria after his discharge from the hospital.  Meanwhile, his attacker, House Majority Leader Chidi Lloyd is cooling his feet at the Force Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigerian Police headquarters in Abuja.  He was detained and is undergoing interrogations for using the mace on Mr. Chinda.
Mr. Wike’s London delegation includes former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara; President of Nigeria Bar Association, Chief Okey Wali; former Treasurer of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr Kenneth Kobani; former Transport Minister, Dr Abiye Sekibo; Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Felix Obuah; and a former Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr. Bonny Iyaye.
This trip contains all the elements of what is wrong with Nigeria,” an analyst told SaharaReporters today.
“You have a Minister, Wike, who does no work in the Ministry but is gallivanting all over Nigeria and the world in the interest of Rivers State politics and President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 ambitions.  You have a man who suffers no life-threatening injuries but who is flown on the president’s order to London at public expense.  You have a man who could have been treated in any local hospital for superficial injuries but was shamelessly shipped abroad, which is in itself a confession the administration has failed to develop hospitals.  You have an entire army of men flown from Nigeria to London in First Class at public expense to go and pose for fake pictures and collect large allowances all because they have in Abuja a man who does not give a damn about fighting corruption.  It gives an all-familiar meaning to the term, ‘Wike-leaks!”