President Muhammadu Buhari |
The Presidency has dismissed as laughable the desperate attempt by
Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State to link President Buhari's wife Aisha
to US Congressman William Jefferson's bribery scandal for which the
American lawmaker was convicted in 2009.
Reacting to Fayose's allegations in a press statement, the Senior
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba
Shehu, said ordinarily the presidency would have ignored Fayose because
he is a man "childishly obsessed with the desire to grab the headlines
and insulting people at will because of his incurably boorish
instincts."
Malam Garba explained however that the presidency chose to respond on
this occasion for the sake of innocent Nigerians who might be misled by
Fayose's shameless and blatant distortion of facts.
He said ignoring Fayose carries the risk of giving traction and
credibility to outright and brazen falsehoods inconsistent with the
status of anybody that calls himself a Governor or leader.
According to Shehu, Aisha had no direct, indirect or the remotest
connection with William Jefferson's corruption scandal in the United
States.
He challenged Fayose to tell Nigerians if the so-called Aisha whose
pictures he proudly, but ignorantly shared, was the same Aisha married
to President Muhammadu Buhari, or if the Aisha of his idle imagination
had any relationship by blood or any relationship in whatever form, with
President Buhari's wife.
Shehu also challenged Fayose to produce evidence from the records of
investigation and subsequent trial of Jefferson to prove that Buhari's
wife Aisha was in anyway linked to that scandal. He explained that
common names alone are not enough to automatically link innocent people
to crimes or scandals, especially in an era of identity thieves.
He further challenged Fayose to show proof when and where Aisha
Buhari was invited for interrogation in connection with Congressman
William Jefferson's bribery scandal, let alone indicted for a crime
locally or abroad.
According to the Presidential Media Aide, free speech does not
entitle Governor Fayose to falsely accuse innocent people of crimes they
knew nothing about.
He warned Fayose that Aisha Buhari is entitled to protect her
reputation from being recklessly maligned, adding that political
opposition is not a licence to attack people's reputation brazenly
without legal consequences.
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