Intrigues as Aisha Buhari insists on getting back N2.5bn donation allegedly cornered by her ADC

The alleged case of fraud said to be rocking the office of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has taken a new dimension as the First Lady, a report says, is insisting on getting a refund of about N2.5 billion donation said to have been cornered by her ADC, a Superintendent of Police, Sani Baba-Inna.

According the report by Vanguard, the person who wrote the petition about the ADC to the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has been invited to the Force Headquarters over the allegation.

It would be recalled that Premium Times had reported that scandal was brewing within the household of President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that Baba-Inna, a chief superintendent of police, was accused of receiving huge donations from politicians and business people on behalf of Aisha and then kept the cash to himself.

According to the report, a source privy to the matter disclosed that the brain behind the petition has been invited to the Police Headquarters, Abuja, to give details of the allegation.

The source said: “The person that wrote the petition on behalf of the First Lady is already at the Police Headquarters right now.”

The report further disclosed that Mrs Buhari requested the IGP to arrest and compel Mr. Baba-Inna to refund the money which was said to be about N2.5 billion.

The police officer was allegedly arrested on Friday and kept in detention, with relatives having no access to him, family members say.

It is yet to be known how the First Lady got to know about the money, but a source in her office claimed one of her aides originated it.

An associate of the embattled police officer said Mr. Baba-Inna strongly denied the allegation, saying he received no donation from anyone on behalf of his boss.

The home of the ADC was also said to have been searched immediately after his arrest.

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“The IG said the matter must be investigated immediately and the house of the ADC was raided.

“Shockingly, investigators reportedly only found N1,200 cash in the House. His bank account was also investigated and had only a balance of N30,000 while the transaction records showed that most credits to the account were his salaries and allowances.”

This, the report said led the police to conclude that Mrs Buhari must have been wrongly informed as there was nothing to show or prove that such huge sums of money was in the custody of Mr Baba-Inna.

Furthermore, an associate of Mr. Baba-Inna disclosed that the police contacted those named as donors of the controversial funds but that they all denied making the donations attributed to them.

“For instance, one of those named was the IG of Police himself. But the IG said he has never passed any money through Baba-Inna”, the associated said.

The report also claimed that when Mrs Buhari was informed of the outcome of police investigation, the First Lady flared up and accused the police of colluding “to protect one of their own”.

She then reportedly asked the State Security Service (SSS) to take over the case and get her money back.

With the First Lady’s order, Mr. Baba-Inna was said to have been taken into custody by the DSS.

Asked to comment on the development, the spokesman of the First Lady, Suleiman Haruna, claimed to have heard of the matter but trying to get details from Mrs Buhari, who is currently in New York.

Spokesman for the DSS,  Mr. Nnochirionye Afunanya, confirmed that the agency is holding Baba-Inna after the case was referred to them.

 

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