Aisha Buhari Denies Taking Money from the Nigerian High Commission in the UK

Aisha Buhari Denies Taking Money from the Nigerian High Commission in the UK

c, wife of the Nigerian president, has reacted to media reports alleging that she has regularly colluded with some senior government officials to fleece the Nigerian High Commission in London every time she travels to the United Kingdom.

Punch reports that Mrs Buhari on Friday challenged the authors and members of the Nigerian High Commission in the UK to provide concrete evidence to contradict her position as it concerns her trips to London.

Earlier in the week, online news portal, Sahara Reporters accused Mrs Buhari and President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Mr Abba Kyari of fiddling with the finances of the Nigerian High Commission and diverting public funds to meet private medical needs among others.

The High Commission was said to be spending a minimum of £7,000 for hospitality on each of Mrs Buhari’s trips to the UK, and that the president’s wife visited the UK at least seven times in 2016.

In her reaction to the report, the president’s wife, through her special assistant on media, Adebisi Olumide-Ajayi, said she had never travelled to London with a large entourage and individuals on her delegation had never exceeded her three children, her Aide-de-Camp and her personal physician.

The statement partly read, “The Nigerian High 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 to her meal, when necessary, and other healthy food or variety needed by her children are her personal responsibility. Her drivers are privately arranged without any recourse to the embassy for staff because of the understanding.”

Olumide-Ajayi added that Mrs Buhari had always been an advocate of good governance and could not collaborate with any government official to shortchange the Nigerian people.