Day Gov Zulum Hired Private Jet to Fly Wounded Soldier to Abuja
By: Zagazola Makama
Major Garba is an Officer of the Nigerian Army, and he sustained serious bullets wounds during an encounter with Boko Haram terrorists in Wajiroko, Damboa.
He was receiving treatment at the Maimalari Military Cantonment Hospital but requested to travelled to Abuja to meet his private doctor.
His request was approved by the military authority but on getting to the airport, the commercial airline operators told him that it was against their rules to fly him in his condition.
Dejected by the response he got, he resigned his fate and was patiently waiting for the next Military flight that will be going to Abuja. Just then Governor Zulum who was travelling to Abuja sauntered into airport. On sighting the wounded Officer, he stopped to greet him.
It was in the course of the greeting that he learnt of the soldier's dilemma. He was told how the Airliners refused to fly him due to his conditions.
A regular flier of commercial airlines, the Governor who was moved by the soldier's condition and the refusal by the commercial airline to fly him, decided to intervene. His intervention was as instantaneous as it was far-reaching.
He dropped his own travel plan with the commercial airline and promptly hired a private jet to fly the wounded soldier to Abuja, accompanied by himself.
But this particular magnanimity he extended to the ailing soldier was not a one-off thing. Governor Zulum is known to have always gone out of his way to provide any kind of support and concern to troops of Operation Hadin Kai who are engaged in the fight against terrorists in the North East of Nigeria.
