Aisha Buhari vs. Governor Fayose

Fri, Jul 1, 2016
By publisher
4 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Politics

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Aisha Buhari, wife of Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian president, is on a war path with Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, South West Nigeria, over his allegation linking her with the Halliburton bribery scandal

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jul 11, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT  |

AISHA Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State are in war of words over the Halliburton scandal involving Williams J. Jefferson, former US Congressman. Fayose on Monday, June 20, alleged that Aisha was involved in the messy bribery scandal.

The governor’s outburst came after his personal account in Zenith Bank was frozen by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. According to Fayose, his rights have been trampled on by the anti-graft agency, but to the EFCC, insists that the power to investigate cases of corruption and carry out such actions has been conferred to the agency by the act establishing it.

In retaliation, Fayose distributed a link to the US Department of Justice’s website holding court documents where Aisha Buhari was alleged to have transferred suspicious funds to Jefferson. In a statement signed by Idowu Adelusi, his chief press secretary, Fayose said President Buhari was far from being a clean man.

“Even the President cannot claim to be an angel,” the governor said, adding: “The estate he built in Abuja, is known to us. His wife was indicted over the Halliburton Scandal. When that American, Jefferson, was being sentenced, the President’s wife was mentioned as having wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialise the judgment for people to see and read,” the statement added.

Lere Olayinka, the governor’s special assistant on New Media, later circulated links to and copies of the court document detailing Buhari’s mention in the scandal. The documents showed that in some of the exhibits tendered in convicting Jefferson of bribery, Aisha Buhari was mentioned as transferring $170,000 to the American politician using a firm as proxy.

The governor’s claim has generated controversy in the country. While some Nigerians believed Fayose’s claims were nothing more than mere allegations, others think that the Buhari-led government may not be a saint as it claims.

However, the presidency swiftly responded to Fayose’s allegations. In a press statement on Tuesday, June 21, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, stated that the presidency would have ignored Fayose because “he is a man childishly obsessed with the desire to grab the headlines and insulting people at will because of his incurably boorish instincts.”

According to him, the presidency however, “chose to respond on this occasion for the sake of innocent Nigerians who might be misled by Fayose’s shameless and blatant distortion of facts.”

Ayodele Fayose
Fayose

Later the same day, a picture of woman said to be an impostor of Nigeria’s first lady, Aisha Buhari, was made available to the public. The lady’s passport had emerged from Nigerian government claiming that the person involved in the Jefferson scandal was not the first lady. However, a closer look at the passport shows that signature is quite hidden, the photograph is almost cut off amid other flaws. The passport of the alleged impostor also leaves a trail where the date of birth looked modified as the date of birth was written 04 AUG/ AC0 75 instead of 04 AUG/AUG 75.

On her part, the president’s wife labelled Fayose as an “unchained mad dog” on her verified twitter account which she later deleted after being slammed by the public for such unguarded utterances from first lady. She said she was not the person referred to in the Halliburton bribery scandal.

In an interview with The Street Journal on Tuesday, June 21, Aisha said linking her name with the Halliburton scandal was most malicious and wicked. “The allegation is like pouring water on a sleeping person. I have never done anything with Halliburton and I don’t know the colour of the company. I am not in the line of business with Halliburton, so linking me with the bribery is wicked.”

Buhari also said she will visit the United States on June 30, in order to put to rest the allegation of her involvement in the bribery scandal. The visit was announced by the All Progressives Congress on its twitter page.

As at press time, Realnews could not confirm if Aisha has travelled to US as the APC stated. But the Nigerians are still savouring the series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Ekiti governor and the presidency and there are really no signs of the controversy will abate any time soon. Nigerians also hope that the truth will eventually emerge and all these allegations put to rest in future.

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