Ekiti PDP: Aisha Buhari’s Trip to US is Fake

By Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State has declared that the state chapter of the comments by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the visit of the wife of the president,  Mrs. Aisha Buhari, to the United States is a desperate attempt to delude Nigerians.

The PDP said: “It is only in the world of the APC that wife of the president of Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world, would travel to the US ostensibly to debunk her involvement in a major scam and no television station will report her departure and arrival. The question is: did she travel to US or Qatar?”

A statement yesterday by the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, said: “If the presidency has not been bold enough to tell Nigerians that Mrs. Buhari travelled to the US on official visit, only a party of scammers like the APC will go on the rooftops to celebrate photo-shopped pictures as evidence of visit to US.

“It is strange that the Nigeria first lady could travel to the US and purportedly attended events there without international television stations like CNN, Aljazeera, BBC, Sky News, among others and local stations like Channels TV, NTA, AIT and others reporting it. Or are they still ‘editing’ the video clips?”

Expressing doubt over the trip, the PDP said: “Even if Mrs. Buhari actually travelled to the US, does that erase the fact that in the judgment delivered by the United State District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, US, in criminal No 1: 07CR209, that indicted the US Congressman, Williams Jefferson, it was mentioned that $170,000 was transferred from account in Nigeria in the name of Aisha Buhari to an account in the name of The ANJ Group, LLC, identifying William Jefferson as beneficiary?

“As a party of responsible and discerning minds, the PDP in Ekiti State would have elected to ignore the APC and allow the party the freedom to advertise it idiocy. This is more so that the matter is now a subject of litigation and no one has denied the existence of the judgment that indicted Williams Jefferson and featured conspicuously at page 22, the name of Aisha Buhari as having transferred $170,000 from account in Nigeria to William Jefferson.

“Most importantly, Nigerians have witnessed more heinous forgeries from the APC, one of them being pictorial claim that President Muhammadu Buhari (as APC presidential candidate then) had an interview with Kemi Fadojutimi on ‘All Eyes on Africa’ TV show in London, whereas the interview was held in Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

“However, it is important to point out that from all evidence, the pictures circulated as arrival of Buhari’s wife at Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, could have been taken at the Doha International Airport, Qatar. Even on the official website of George Mason University and US Institute of Peace, USA where the president’s was said to have attended events, there is nothing to show that she attended any event at the two institutions.”

The party added: “We have seen pictures of the wife of the Senate President, Toyin Saraki, with President Barrack Obama’s wife, Michelle. We also saw pictures of Mrs. Patience Jonathan with Michelle Obama when she visited the US. Where are Aisha’s pictures with the first lady of US or major government officials from the country? Or could she have arrived and departed from the US like a spirit?

“It is even more important that nothing official has been said about the purported trip, not even from the president’s spokespersons.”   that Mrs. Buhari dared not travel to the US because she would be arrested for her involvement in the scandal.

Replying, the APC spokesman, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement said the visit of the president’s wife to America last week has exposed the governor as a “liar.”

He said the Mrs. Buhari did not only visit US but also met with the US government’s top leaders, United Nations officials and several NGOs that promised her cash and materials to aid the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east.