N2.5BN FRAUD SCANDAL: PDP not satisfied with Aisha’s defense, challenges Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said Nigerians do not accept the “lame defence “offered by First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari over the alleged N2.5 billion fraud said to have been perpetrated by her Aide De Camp, Mr. Sani Baba-Inna.

According to the opposition party, Mrs. Buhari made the defence because the scandal is already in the public domain.

PDP, which stated this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan on Wednesday in Abuja, also challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to show his zero tolerance for corruption by allowing for an open inquest into the alleged N2.5bn scandal, in which it said his wife, Aisha, has already been entangled.

The party insisted that this was the best way to get the clear picture of the scandal instead of the alleged spirited effort by the Presidency to suppress the matter.

According to the PDP, nothing was more scandalous than the fact that while President Buhari is in the United Nations General Assembly in New York mouthing his war against corruption, a huge broth of corruption, in which his wife was mentioned, was simmering under his own roof.

The statement reads in part: “This scandal has further vindicated the stand of the PDP that President Buhari presides over a government of corruption, where his close relatives, officials and a cabal of associates are enmeshed in sleazy deals but parading as saints.

Read also: He acted alone! Aisha Buhari disowns ADC, asks those defrauded to chase after him

“It is instructive to note that the First Lady has already admitted that her detained security aide defrauded ‘unsuspecting associates and officials,’ a position which inadvertently exposes the attempt by the police to conceal the matter.

“The PDP and indeed Nigerians have always pointed to the very expensive lifestyle and personal effects, including posh jewelry, daily paraded by close relatives of Mr President, thus belying gimmicks and stunts of the first family being saintly and pro-poor.

“Also, there have been allegations of acquisitions of sprawling and choice property in Nigeria and other countries by persons close to the President.

“Since the First Lady, in her statement, confessed that her security aide defrauded ‘unsuspecting associates and officials,’ the PDP demands that the aide should be promptly docked in an open court and given the opportunity to defend himself and expose his accomplices in the alleged fraud.”

According to Ologbondiyan, it was a common knowledge that aides of former Presidents and those of former First Ladies were facing trial in open court over similar allegations and this should not be an exception, adding that the PDP hoped that the detained aide would not be ‘escorted’ out of the country to prevent him from opening up.

“Moreover, the PDP invites Nigerians to note that the Presidency has suddenly gone dumb on a N2.5bn fraud under its roof. Does this not amount to the admittance of complicity by the Buhari Presidency, which is becoming notorious as a den of certificate forgers and persons of questionable character?” he added.

 

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