Also joining the fray on the president’s health, another group based in the north on Wednesday warned leaders and politicians from the South-west against exploiting the uncertainty arising from President Muhammadu Buhari’s health.

The Northern Patriotic Assembly (NPA), in a statement issued in Kaduna, described the statements from prominent Nigerians and some civil society groups, mainly of Yoruba extraction, as “immoral” and “despicable”.

The group’s warning came after a similar one issued by another prominent northern group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Tuesday.

The northern groups were reacting to calls by some prominent Nigerians, including human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, who had asked the president to proceed on medical vacation in order to cater to his health.

The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, had also warned that “some people” in the corridors of power were feasting on Buhari’s health.

Akande added that the uncertainty over his health was taking a toll on the country and expressed fear that Nigeria might be thrown into anarchy.

The former APC chairman had said Nigeria was facing two challenges – the Buhari health challenge and the lack of cohesion between the National Assembly and the presidency, which according to him were “two great red flags that have the potential of plunging the country into unprecedented chaos and destabilising the gains of democracy since 1999”.

But in the statement signed by the President of the NPA, Hon. Idakwo Jibrin, and its Secretary General, Alhaji Adamu Wakil, the group particularly frowned on the statements by Akande and Falana.

NPA further alleged that Akande and Falana’s statements were part of a larger plot to plunge the country into a crisis, bearing in mind that the Yoruba will be the beneficiaries if the president is forced to step down.

According to the group, Buhari’s health has been politicised beyond comprehension by politicians who hide behind the pretext of agitating for what is in the best interest of the country.

It added: “Even more unnerving is a situation whereby people we once held in high esteem as elders, leaders and professionals decided to descend into the mud, using President Buhari’s health as their new object of obsession.

“They have fanatically tried to impose this obsession of theirs on other Nigerians in a desperate bid to cause panic and confusion.

“Sadder still is the fact that these mischief makers are people who pose as President Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party leaders, associates and friends.

“With this crow of desperadoes Mr. President need not worry about the opposition, the real viper’s nest is in his courtyard.

“They are the ones, who finding no avenue to corner the government to themselves, are now working day and night to use the president’s health as a campaign tool to hijack the government.

“We want Nigerians to specifically call these people to order. They cannot be allowed to run riot with their own mission to the detriment of the rest of us.

“The founding chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, who spoke from two opposing directions – he urged caution about the way President Buhari’s health is discussed, yet went on to describe it as a challenge to Nigeria.

“This prevarication is unbecoming of an elder statesman of his stature. He should apologise to Nigerians and stop making such unguarded utterances going forward.

“Akande’s role is however that of the ‘Voice of Jacob and the Hand of Esau’ since it is glaring he spoke for the self-appointed Yoruba leader, Bola Tinubu, whose protégé is the next in line to benefit if President Buhari can be shoved aside on health grounds.

“This is a reckless abuse of the constitution and open provocation of the masses. We therefore tell Tinubu in clear terms to allow the nation be.

“The same way he could not sell the Muslim-Muslim ticket to hitch a ride as President Buhari’s deputy is the way he would not succeed in the current venture.

“In what has been confirmed that President Buhari’s health is being exploited as a Yoruba plot against the rest of Nigeria, APC affiliated lawyer, Chief Femi Falana, is apparently cobbling together an alliance of lawyers, commercial CSOs and paid activists to cause a crisis.”