Detained aides of Aisha Buhari: Concerns over Buhari’s PA abuse of power

The action of Yusuff was seen as an outright abuse of power and an insult to the wife of the number one citizen of the country.

Hajiya Aisha Buhari had on Friday asked the Police Inspector General, Mohammed Adamu to release her staff who are in police detention.

Mrs. Buhari in a series of tweets said that the IGP should “release my assigned Staff who are still in the custody of the Police in order to avoid putting their lives in danger or exposure to COVID-19 while in their custody.”

Mrs. Buhari in one the tweets said:”That COVID-19 is real and still very much around in our nation is not in doubt.

“Consequently, I call on all relevant Government Agencies to enforce the Quarantine Act signed by Mr. President and ensure no one is found violating this law and the NCDC guidelines…”

In another one, she said: “…especially on interstate travel without the necessary exemptions for movement of essentials.

“Anyone who does that should at the very least be made to under go a 14 days mandatory isolation no matter who the person is, no one should be above the law and the Police command…”

Aisha did not say who among her staff are in detention or how and why they were detained.

However, an online publication, said that the arrest of some of the First Lady’s staff was instigated by Sabiu Yusuff, following his ejection from the Presidential Villa for allegedly breaching the COVID-19 safety code.

Sabiu Yusuff who also calls himself Tunde, a name he adopted from the name of the late Tunde Idiagbon.

Yusuff was said to have recently returned to Abuja from Lagos and failed to observe self-isolation.

As the story goes, he went to the Villa but was turned back so that the First Family, particularly the President , whom he works with directly, might not be exposed to COVID-19.

The aide was also said to have had contacts with the late NNPC MD, Makantu Baru and we gathered that attempts to get him to do a COVID-19 test since then proved abortive.

“Yusuff did not take kindly to being asked to self isolate by the wife of the President and two of his children who were at the Villa then.

“He got violent, had altercations with the security aides attached to the Wife of the President.

“He stormed out in anger and the next thing was that Mrs. Buhari’s security aides were withdrawn allegedly on his orders to the IGP,” said a source.

However, concerned Nigerians are asking that “does the the personal assistant to the president, who is in his 30s, has power to question the authority of the wife of the president.”

According to them, “is it too much to ask him and his friends who flouted directives on inter state travel to isolate themselves. Recall that even the president’s last daughter had to go on isolation when she returned from a trip. Why not Sabiu Yusuf”

“Who is he to call the Inspector General to order for the withdrawal of the security details of the first lady

“Is Yusuf a personal Assistant now seeing himself as the defacto President of Nigeria since the demise of the former chief of staff to the president, Malam Abba Kyari, who was believed to be in-charge in Aso Rock by many observers,” said a source.

“As a nephew to the President, the PA ought to know how to be dispassionate in his actions and give honour to whom it is due,” said a source in Aso Rock, adding that “the office of the First Lady should not be desecrated by those who don’t know their left from right.

“Most importantly the health and safety of the President matters . If the rule says self isolate after a trip,why not and it should be applicable to all inclusive of Sabiu Tunde Yusuff who sees the President several times in one day? Said a source.