Back in 2020 when former first lady, Aisha Buhari relocated to Dubai shortly after the wedding of her daughter, Hanan, one of the most potent reasons
Back in 2020 when former first lady, Aisha Buhari relocated to Dubai shortly after the wedding of her daughter, Hanan, one of the most potent reasons for her relocation being bandied around was because of the increasing insecurity in the country.
But it turned out that the power struggle at the seat of power between Aisha and her husband, late president Muhammadu Buhari’s relatives, was too much for her to bear, with her husband seemingly appearing too helpless to protect his wife.
She refused to be cowered but instead chose to relocate to Dubai.
Prior to the interview, a video had made the rounds on the internet where she was captured raising her voice at some people in the presidential villa. The video was recorded by Daura’s daughter, Fatima. Aisha revealed that she reacted that way after being denied access to parts of the villa by Daura and his family.
“It was Fatima, the daughter of Mamman Daura that shot the video in front of my security and everybody there. She was actually recording the whole thing right in front of me and was laughing and mocking me. They did that because my husband sacked them from the house. He told them to get all their belongings and leave the house for my son, Yusuf to occupy. I left them and wanted to get to one of the rooms but they prevented me from getting through, I left them and took another way yet I met the store locked,” she said.
Fatima however denied Aisha’s claim.
“I am a daughter to Malam Mamman Daura… if one reasons well, he or she will understand that it is not possible to say that the wife of the president is denied access to her apartment but let me give a context. The apartment in question is called the Glass House. You know that there are several houses and apartments in the villa. When the president got into office, he gave the Glass House to our father, Mamman Daura.
“You all know that they are friends and are related, more so, they grew up together like twins. When he became president, he gave the Glasshouse to our dad and said he should stay there. Our dad stayed there for three years now until when the president’s son, Yusuf, had an accident and went to Germany for treatment.
“When he returned, the president told our dad to move out of that apartment to an even bigger one in the villa, that Yusuf is going to stay and be treated in the Glass House. The Glass House is closer to the main presidential apartment and that will make easier access for him and his mother. It is not in her apartment which is in the main apartment.
“(On that day) My mom and dad were not around. So, my dad instructed me and my elder sister, both of us are working and we go to work every morning, that we should come on a Saturday and move our belongings to the new apartment the president instructed.
“We planned to park out then and have even concluded moving all the things. All of a sudden, in the afternoon as we were busy on that errand of packing our belongings when we heard noise from outside. I was in an inner room in the house while my sister was in an outer one close to the main gate of the apartment. So my sister went out before I could come out.
“On getting there, it was the wife of the president. When she came, the door was locked and she picked a metal chair and broke the door. I have sent the picture to you. My sister that went out was almost hit by the chair. She threw the chair which broke through the door and almost hit my sister. I was so shocked and afraid of getting there because she was shouting and reigning abusive words and saying we should move out of that apartment. That she has never seen this kind of thing before. I then went back and picked my phone because if one is to say that she acted that way, no one would believe it without a proof. She has already been saying a lot of things depicting that she is being suppressed.
“So I recorded it to show our parents and the security, so that they will know the truth should anything happen. Because the way she was raging and shouting, I was thinking that she would pick something and hit us with it or something like that. That was why we recorded it. Had it been we wanted to release the video, we would have done it earlier. But you know if a video clip enters one or two hands, you can’t control where it will get to. She was insulting the security and she drove them away saying who are they protecting and calling them bloody idiots. That was what happened.”
Soon after, one of her security details, Sabiu ‘Tunde’ Yusuf, refused to follow an order issued to him by his superiors, to embark on a 14-day isolation period upon returning from a trip to Lagos. Shortly afterwards, Aisha’s ADC at that time, Usman Shugaba, in an attempt to apprehend Yusuf, reportedly fired gunshots but he escaped to the residence of the late president’s nephew, Mamman Daura where he spent the night. Yusuf soon ordered the arrest of Aisha’s ADC and other security details in connivance with Buhari’s chief security officer. Buhari had ordered a probe into the alleged security breach inside the presidential villa but nothing was heard of it again.
