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Crisis in the Villa: Mamman Daura’s Daughter Reveals Lady in Leaked Video is Actually Aisha Buhari
The identity of the voice and image in a leaked video that went viral last week may have been known.
The video hit public domain as rumours of a wedding between Buhari and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajia Sadia Farouq, made the rounds last week.
According to the daughter of Mamman Daura, Fatima, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (Hausa), the blurred image as well as the voice which was seen and heard in the video were actually that of the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs Aisha Buhari.
In the interview monitored by TheCable, Fatima said she recorded the video as a proof that Buhari’s wife confronted her violently in 2017. The young woman described how aggressively Mrs Buhari attacked her and her sister.
Below is the transcript of the interview:
“My name is Fatima. 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,” she said.
“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 to him by his mother. It is not in her apartment which is in the main apartment.”
Fatima narrated what led to the incident that was captured in the video, saying she recorded it to use as evidence against the first lady.
“(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,” she said.
“We planned to pack 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 abuses 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.
“There are even other clips that have not been released, I will send them to you to see how she was insulting the security and how she drove them away saying who are they protecting and calling them bloody idiots. Its all on the video clip. That was what happened.”
Aisha Buhari returned to the country last Sunday after a two months sojourn in the United Kingdom, a trip she said she on her doctor’s advice.
The Senate has granted approval to the ₦1.77 trillion ($2.2b) loan request of President Bola Tinubu after a voice vote in favor of the request.
The Senate presided by Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, approved the loan after the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts chaired by Senator Wammako Magatarkada (APC, Sokoto North) presented the report of the committee.
The request which was submitted by the President on Tuesday is part of a fresh external borrowing plan to partially finance the N9.7 trillion budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year.
Tinubu had on Tuesday written to the National Assembly, seeking approval of a fresh N1.767 trillion, the equivalent of $2.209 billion as a new external borrowing plan in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
The fresh loan is expected to stretch the amount spent on debt servicing by the Federal Government. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently said that it cost the Federal Government $3.58 billion to service foreign debt in the first nine months of 2024.
The CBN report on international payment statistics showed that the amount represents a 39.77 per cent increase from the $2.56bn spent during the same period in 2023.
According to the report, while the highest monthly debt servicing payment in 2024 occurred in May, amounting to $854.37m, the highest monthly expenditure in 2023 was $641.70m, recorded in July.
The trend in foreign debt servicing by the CBN highlights the rising cost of debt obligations by Nigeria.
Further breakdown of international debt figures showed that in January 2024, debt servicing costs surged by 398.89 per cent, rising to $560.52m from $112.35m in January 2023. February, however, saw a slight decline of 1.84 per cent, with payments reducing from $288.54m in 2023 to $283.22m in 2024.
March recorded a 31.04 per cent drop in payments, falling to $276.17m from $400.47m in the same period last year. April saw a significant rise of 131.77 per cent, with $215.20m paid in 2024 compared to $92.85m in 2023.
The highest debt servicing payment occurred in May 2024, when $854.37m was spent, reflecting a 286.52 per cent increase compared to $221.05m in May 2023. June, on the other hand, saw a 6.51 per cent decline, with $50.82m paid in 2024, down from $54.36m in 2023.
July 2024 recorded a 15.48 per cent reduction, with payments dropping to $542.50m from $641.70m in July 2023. In August, there was another decline of 9.69 per cent, as $279.95m was paid compared to $309.96m in 2023. However, September 2024 saw a 17.49 per cent increase, with payments rising to $515.81m from $439.06m in the same month last year.
Given rising exchange rates, the data raises concerns about the growing pressure of Nigeria’s foreign debt obligations.
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Self acclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, has been arrested by law enforcement in Finland.
The BBC reports that Ekpa was subsequently sent to prison by the district court of Päijät-Häme for “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media”.
Ekpa was said to have committed the crime in 2021 in Lahti municipality.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) also arrested four other men over alleged terrorist offences.
A citizen of Finland and Nigeria, Ekpa has described himself as leader of the separatist IPOB group since Nnamdi Kanu’s incarceration.
Finnish police say Ekpa’s activities and social media rhetoric may have fanned the flames of violence in the south-east of Nigeria.
“He carries out these activities from his social media channels, for example,” said Otto Hiltunen, detective chief inspector of the NBI.
In February 2023, Ekpa was arrested by police at his residence in Lahti but was released after hours of questioning.
Using his social media channels, Ekpa had directed Igbos not to participate in Nigeria’s 2023 general election.
In September 2021, the Biafra agitator and secessionist denounced Nigeria and vowed to return the medal he won for the country at the 2003 African Junior Athletics Championships.
The Court of Appeal has sacked Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo as the National President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
In a ruling that upheld the earlier judgment of the National Industrial Court, the appellate court sacked MC Oluomo and reaffirmed Tajudeen Baruwa as the legitimate leader of the union.
Baruwa had assumed office after a properly conducted election held at the union’s headquarters in Abuja.
The three-member panel of the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal filed by MC Oluomo’s faction, declaring it devoid of merit.
In addition, the court imposed a fine of N100,000 on the appellants, further solidifying Baruwa’s leadership position.
Reports quoting court documents said to have been released on Friday detailed the ruling, which effectively countered any attempts to displace Baruwa from his role as the NURTW president.
The judgment read: “This is an appeal against the judgment/decision of the National Industrial Court Sitting in Abuja, in Suit No. NICN/ABJ/263/2023, delivered on the 11th March, 2024, by Justice O. O. Oyewumi.
“Upon reading the Record of Appeal compiled and transmitted before this court, together with the respective briefs of argument, and after hearing the counsels for the appellants and respondents, it is hereby ordered that:
“This Appeal is devoid of merit, and the same is hereby dismissed.”
The ruling reinforces the legitimacy of Baruwa’s presidency, concluding the legal dispute over the union’s leadership.
Meanwhile, MC Oluomo’s son Idowu Akinsanya (King West) had bragged about his feat of emerging the NURTW president, saying: “We are now in charge of Nigeria, not only Lagos,” a comment that attracted public opprobrium.
MC Oluomo, a diehard supporter of President Bola Tinubu and a prominent figure in Lagos politics, was the sole candidate in the election, which took place at the union’s zonal secretariat in Osogbo. His perceived victory was deemed to carry significant implications for the future of the NURTW and the political landscape of Nigeria.
