Aisha Buhari Denies Insinuations of Corruption

Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari has refuted allegations by an online news site which accused her of colluding with government officials of the Nigerian High Commission in London to ‘bleed Nigeria high’.

The online news portal, Sahara Reporters, had on Thursday reported that the High Commission spends a minimum of £7,000 for hospitality on each of Mrs. Buhari’s trips to the UK. Mrs Buhari visited at least, seven times last year.

But in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Adebisi Olumide-Ajayi, the President’s wife said the High Commission has never sponsored her trips or footed her bills on private travels. Doing otherwise would be contrary to the underlying principle of her husband’s fight against corruption.

She also denied travelling with large delegations, claiming that her entourage had never exceeded her three children, her Aide-De-Camp and her personal physician. 

The statement read, “The Nigerian Commission in London has never offered any favour, either monetarily or materially,  to her (the President’s wife) or her so-called entourage on any of her trips to London. 

“The State House in Abuja caters for her meal when necessary, and other healthy food or variety needed by her children are her personal responsibility.  

“It is on record that the Nigerian Commission in London does not receive Aisha Buhari at the airport with any official distinction or privileges as was accorded other first ladies before her.

“Her drivers are privately arranged without any recourse to the embassy staff.

“She has never complained or raised dust about any of these acts  by the High Commission because of the understanding, as clearly spelled out and practised by her husband, that public office must be separated from the private lives of the occupants. 

“She has always been an advocate of good governance where officials of government are responsive and appealing to their constituents. It therefore baffles the imagination  that one could believe she would collaborate with any government official, however highly placed, either at home or abroad, to shortchange the Nigerian people.”

The President’s wife challenged authors of the report which suggested corruption and abuse of privileges on her part, to provide concrete evidence which contradicts her side of the story and make known the ‘true’ state of things in order to clear her integrity before Nigerians who “deserve” to know the truth.