Defence Minister faints during Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration

The Minister of State for Defence, Olusola Obada, scared participants at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration in Abuja on Tuesday as she slumped midway into the celebration.

There are conflicting reports about why she collapsed. One account says that the minister was taken by surprise by the sounds of artillery fire during the celebration. Another report claimed that the minister slumped due to exhaustion caused by standing for several minutes.

The Minister later regained her composure after she was attended to by her aides. She does not seem to have sustained any serious health risk as she was later seen in company of the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as President Goodluck Jonathan met with the Vice president of the World Bank, Murkhtar Diop, in the State House.

The Minister, a former deputy governor of Osun State, has no military background.

Meanwhile, in Abeokuta, former President Olusegun Obasanjo turned down the invitation of the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, to lay wreath during the celebration of the Armed forces Remembrance Day celebration in the state.

The event was put on hold for a while as several dignitaries unsuccessfully refused to persuade him to change his mind.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the former president, a retired army general, refused to participate in the wreath laying ceremony because he was not included in the original list of those to lay wreath.