The acting governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, has disclosed that his principal, Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai, is missing.

Umar, who stated this yesterday in Jalingo during a media chat with journalists, said that he had not set his eyes on his boss, Governor Suntai, since he was smuggled into the country by a certain cabal.

“Few of my aides and I were already at the domestic wing of the airport to receive my boss but, unknowingly to me, the cabal was already waiting at the international wing of the airpot where the plane conveying my boss was directed to land,” he said.

“When I got to know that the plane landed at the international wing, I rushed to the place to receive him, but he was in a jeep which immediately drove him to T.Y. Danjuma Lodge,” Umar added.

He alleged that the cabal, which surrounded the ailing Suntai, was holding him hostage in order to hold on to power to the detriment of his health.

The acting governor called on citizens of state to eschew religious differences and work towards unity in the state.

“I thank God this year’s sallah was peaceful; peace has returned to some of the crisis areas in the state. And I have also constituted a reconciliation committee to ensure that those who fled their homes because of crisis return,” he noted.

He assured sons and daughters of the state that his administration would continue to work to ensure that all Tarabans enjoys the dividend of democracy.

However, a former commissioner for information in the state, Mr. Emmanuel Bello, told LEADERSHIP on phone that Suntai was not missing.

He explained that governor Suntai was doing well and would soon return to the state to continue his business of governance.

“Since our dear governor returned from his medical trip, he has been at the Governor’s Lodge, otherwise called T.Y. Danjuma House, located at Asokoro in Abuja,” Bello said.

He stressed that the acting governor, Umar, was only waiting for this tenure to elapse, and that after the expiration of Suntai’s administration that brought him as deputy governor, he would pack his luggage out of Government House.

Efforts to speak with Governor Suntai’s senior special adviser on media and publicity, Mr. Slyvanus Giwa, were futile as his telephone lines were not going through at the time of filing this report.

•Adapted from a LEADERSHIP report. Photo shows Suntai and Umar.

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