Aisha Buhari And The Halliburton Outburst — The Hunter Is Being Hunted -By Bamidele Williams

Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s First Lady

It has come to a fine pass when the goslings teach the geese, and the kittens rule the cat. We all know Governor Fayose too well. It is a good thing for a man to be fond of his own trade and his own place, but still there is reason in everything, even in roasting eggs. Let madam Aisha Buhari endeavor to prove to us Nigerians that the courageous D-O-G did not noticed anything before barking.

The Haliburton scandal involving prominent Nigerians and disgraced congressman Williams J. Jefferson, is still a hot topic in Nigeria.
The United States has said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has all it needs to prosecute all those implicated in the crime
Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar are part of those mentioned in the scandal.

Meanwhile, the sentencing memorandum obtained from the U.S District Court Eastern District of Virginia listed as exhibit, a wire transfer to congressman Jefferson from an account owned by Mrs Buhari.

The U.S Justice Department had at the time requested the EFCC through a letter dated June 22, 2006 to investigate Mrs Buhari and several others linked with bribing congressman Jefferson.

Mrs Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Dumebi Kachikwu (brother to current minister of petroleum, Ibe, Otunba Fashawe (close associate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo), Aliyu Maigari and others were named in a long chain of Nigerian and American bribe takers that spirited about $45 million—for a technology transfer deal—to the US between 1996 and 2002.

Atiku, chairing of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), then, was, alongside congressman Jefferson, Siemens, Halliburton, and others, indicted in a U.S. Senate report sent to the EFCC for investigation in 2006.

Jefferson is currently serving jail time in the US,while those linked to his crime are still being sort after for questioning especially in Nigeria.
A source confirmed that while Kachikwu had offered to testify against Jefferson, Mrs Buhari stayed away from the FBI probe and has also stayed away from the U.S.
Interestingly, since President Muhammadu Buhari was elected as Nigeria’s leader, Mrs Buhari has never followed him to his numerous U.S trips.
The U.S Senate report, FBI reports and U.S Court papers on the allegations have remained in the coolers of the EFCC as the agency appears to be lacking the political will to carrying on the prosecution.

All these among others were recently unraveled by Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state.

Fayose speaking further on the issue;
He said: “EFCC is only acting a movie scripted, produced and directed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Mohammadu Buhari just to silence me being a major opposition voice in the country.”
On the alleged involvement of President Buhari’s wife, Aisha, in the Williams Jefferson bribery scam, the governor challenged the president’s wife to visit the United States of America to convince Nigerians that she was not the Aisha Buhari mentioned in the judgment.
“It is on record that the President has visited USA three times and his wife did not travel with him. She ought to have visited USA last year September to chair a United Nation programme but she sent the wife of the Senate President, Mrs Toyin Saraki to represent her.

Reacting to the allegations; Aisha Buhari took to her twitter account, naming Fayose as an “unchained mad dog” claiming the allegations are false and baseless. A cooked lie therefore demanding a full retraction of the statement within five working days.

Fayose is gradually becoming the god of opposition politics. It’s amazing how this man(Fayose)single-handedly stand oppose to the powerful presidency from his small Ekiti state,reminding one of wartime Britain standing against the mighty Hitler Germany during the second world war. Anyway this is the beauty of democracy.
One of the reason I still respect the man as Nigeria is far descending to a one party system.
A possible end to our democracy.

To Her Excellency, Mrs. Aisha Buhari the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR;

This is how to deal with false accusations – just prove them wrong.
GEJ was accused of running away and seeking asylum in Ivory Coast to avoid being arrested by the EFCC.
What did he do? He denied the allegation and came back to Nigeria and hosted a brief press conference and the false accusation died a very natural death.
Our first lady is being accused of being the Aisha Buhari that was part of the Halliburton scandal.
What she needs to do to kill this allegation once and for all. Travel to the US and hold a press conference in the US and return. There are always simple solutions to simple problems.
I don’t know why we like complicating simple things in this country.

Instead of writing Fayose for apology, why don’t you write the U.S embassy to file a comprehensive report about the purported claims of being a part of the Haliburton scandal. Let them reopen the case for clarity. And if after you’re pronounced innocent, then you can sue Fayose for deformation of character and character assassination. So logical and straight to the point.

I’ve carefully looked into this matter, In this case, Fayose may not be mad as some people think.
Nigerians have been deceived many times. Look critically on this issue. If the said corrupted Aisha Buhari is in US, why is it difficult to arrest her especially when the issue at stake is a high profile bribery allegation. The presidency has boosted of laising with American governement to extradite Obanikoro if need be. Why then is it impossible to extradite the corrupted Aisha. These are questions to ask here.
In as much as of our ethnic or party affiliations, I think that Fayose may not be far from the truth. In fact, the presidency was quick to react to this one when it took it almost a week to react to Fulani Herdsmen massacre. Calling Ribadu and Lamorde to make such denigrating comment on this issue again is simply a pointer to the culpability of the president’s wife.

Show us your certificate, you went and hire tens of SANs’ to defend you in court. Now you claim you’re not the Aisha Buhari, just travel to US and do a press conference and come back and prove doubters, rumour mongers and wailers wrong; instead of resorting to name calling, threats and intimidations.
After all, the so called impostor who was claimed to use the name ‘Aisha Buhari’ has denied the allegations.

I think the issue is not retracting the said statements issued by the EKiti state governor, but for Aisha Buhari and Muhammad Buhari to refute and defend those allegation in the court of competent jurisdiction.

Let EFCC look critically into this again and let the national assembly investigate the matter and make the truth known to Nigerians.
This must not be swept under the carpet.
No wonder our foreign household name is “Fantastically Corrupt”

My points here are simple and lucid enough;
You are Wife to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
– Travel to the US
– Meet with officials of the FBI
– Use every available machineries to seek public clarification on this issue from the FBI.
After this, case closed and Ayo Fayose would be wrong or better still put to shame.

Bamidele Williams
08134810254
Profcube10@gmail.com

Bamidele Williams is a journalist and a public affairs Analyst. A student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria.