The immediate past Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, has explained that the Aisha Buhari named in the bribery scandal involving a U.S. Congressman, Williams Jefferson, is not the wife of the president, Aisha.
Mr. Lamorde made the clarification Tuesday in response to a claim by Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose that President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife was the one mentioned in the bribery scandal.
Mr. Fayose, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, while reacting to the freezing of his Zenith Bank account by the EFCC on Monday, said “His (President Buhari’s) wife was indicted over the Halliburton Scandal. When that American, Jefferson, was being sentenced, the President’s wife was mentioned as having wired $170,000 to Jefferson. Her name was on page 25 of the sentencing of Jefferson. We can serialize the judgment for people to see and read”.
But Lamorde rubbished the claim, saying “I can tell you authoritatively that the Aisha Buhari named in that case is not President Buhari’s wife. It is another Aisha Buhari entirely”.
“I was the director of operations at the EFCC at the time so I know about the case very well. I can tell you that it is not her (President Buhari’s wife). That much we established”, Lamorde asserted.
The former EFCC chairman, who is currently on course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), decried the attempt to link the president’s wife to the bribery scandal.
“It is unfair to link the President’s wife with that case”, he said. “She was definitely not the one involved, and Fayose and other Nigerians should know this”.
