Exposed: Lawmaker Hit With Mace Told To Fake His Injuries; London Hospital Speaks

“You have a Minister, Nyesom Wike, who does no work in the Ministry [where lecturers are on strike] 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, Chinda, 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... 

"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!"

Investigations by Sahara Reporters show that Rivers State legislator, Hon Michael Chinda, was discharged from London’s Bupa Cromwell Hospital on Saturday, a day after the Minister of State for Education, Nyeson Wike, took a delegation there on a "fake" courtesy visit and posed for pictures by his bedside.

A hospital official disclosed in London on Wednesday that Hon Chinda had since 
been discharged because he did not have any life-threatening injuries. 

But photos were circulated by Nyesom Wike on Sunday showing a group of politicians from Rivers State, led by him in an "hospital room". The pictures were choreographed to present Hon Chinda as having suffered grave injuries in the brutal attack in the House of Assembly, and become bedridden.

The "fake" delegation trip to London was reportedly bankrolled by Wike’s office and the presidency, costing Nigerian taxpayers several thousands of British pounds in flight, food and hotel accommodation. Ironically, it is at a time Nigerian universities had been shut down due to lack of funding from the government.

A credible source told Sahara Reporters that the main reason behind the Minister’s sponsorship of Chinda's 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.

Wike’s London delegation includes former deputy speaker of the House of Reps, Austin Opara; President of Nigeria Bar Association, Okey Wali; former state Treasurer of Action Congress of Nigeria, Kenneth Kobani; former Transport Minister, Abiye Sekibo; Rivers State factional PDP 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 Sahara Reporters.