First Lady reacts to alleged N2.5bn fraud against her aide

Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, says she has never asked her aides to receive favours on her behalf.

The First Lady stated this while reacting to the arrest and detention of her Aide De Camp (ADC), Sani Baban-Inna, over an alleged N2.5 billion fraud.

According to a report, Baban-Inna, a Chief Superintendent of Police, received huge donations from politicians and business people on behalf of Mrs Buhari and then kept the cash to himself.

But in a statement by her director of information, Suleiman Haruna, Mrs Buhari advised anyone who might have had dealings with the ADC to report the matter in order to retrieve their monies.

The statement reads: “The story as it pertains to her ADC, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Sani Baban-Inna has it that he has been detained on the orders of Her Excellency for dropping her name and defrauding unsuspecting officials and associates. She wishes to use this opportunity to refute such allegation and to state that she has no hand in his arrest and detention.

Aisha Buhari with the children ece-auto-gen

“CSP Sani Baban-Inna has been her ADC since 2016 and has been associated with her ever since. To the utter dismay of Her Excellency, he has used the opportunity to defraud unsuspecting associates and officials as initial investigations have shown.

“The Nigeria Police Force, his employers arrested him to investigate the allegations leveled against him, this, being within their jurisdiction.

“She therefore wishes to use this opportunity to inform the general public that she has never sent any of her staff to collect any favours on her behalf or on behalf of her children and will never do so. She is therefore imploring anyone that has been defrauded by Mr. Baban-Inna to get across to him to retrieve whatever he took from them. Mrs. Buhari wishes to reiterate that she will not condone fraudulent behavior by any of her staff.

“She uses this opportunity to call on all those in positions of authority to rise above intimidation by their aides and deal with such attitudes as extortion by name-dropping, especially within the Presidency. As she always emphasizes, this government was voted into office based on the trust and confidence of the people.”

Earlier, the Department of State Servicesconfirmed custody of the First Lady’s aide.