For the second time in less than 24 hours, the authenticity of a video that went viral last week has been confirmed by one of the dramatis personae, but this time, there is a context.
First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, confirmed that it was her in the video. A woman whose face was not shown was heard railing at no one in particular in English and Hausa languages, but Mrs. Buhari said it was an old video. She spoke at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on Sunday when she returned after a two-month absence from Nigeria.
However, Fatima, daughter of Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, has accused the wife of the president of attacking her inside the presidential villa in Abuja, a story by The Cable has revealed.
Commenting on a video where the first lady was seen complaining about being denied access to her apartment, Fatima said she least expected Buhari’s wife to act in a violent manner.
In the video which trended on Friday while the rumour mill was agog that the president was getting married to Sadiya Umaru Farouq, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, the president’s wife was seen speaking in anger.
In a BBC Hausa interview monitored by TheCable, Fatima said she recorded the video as a proof that Buhari’s wife confronted her violently.
The incident happened in 2017.
“My name is Fatima. I am a daughter to Malam Mamman Daura… if one reasons well, he or she will understand that it is not possible to say that the wife of the president is denied access to her apartment but let me give a context,” she said.
“The apartment in question is called the Glass House. You know that there are several houses and apartments in the villa. When the president got into office, he gave the Glass House to our father, Mamman Daura.
“You all know that they are friends and are related, more so, they grew up together like twins. When he became president, he gave the Glasshouse to our dad and said he should stay there. Our dad stayed there for three years now until when the president’s son, Yusuf, had an accident and went to Germany for treatment.
“When he returned, the president told our dad to move out of that apartment to an even bigger one in the villa, that Yusuf is going to stay and be treated in the Glass House. The Glass House is closer to the main presidential apartment and that will make easier access to him by his mother. It is not in her apartment which is in the main apartment.”
Fatima narrated what led to the incident that was captured in the video, saying she recorded it to use as evidence against the first lady.
“(On that day) My mom and dad were not around. So, my dad instructed me and my elder sister, both of us are working and we go to work every morning, that we should come on a Saturday and move our belongings to the new apartment the president instructed,” she said.
“We planned to park out then and have even concluded moving all the things. All of a sudden, in the afternoon as we were busy on that errand of packing our belongings when we heard noise from outside. I was in an inner room in the house while my sister was in an outer one close to the main gate of the apartment. So my sister went out before I could come out.
“On getting there, it was the wife of the president. When she came, the door was locked and she picked a metal chair and broke the door. I have sent the picture to you. My sister that went out was almost hit by the chair. She threw the chair which broke through the door and almost hit my sister.
“I was so shocked and afraid of getting there because she was shouting and raining abuses words and saying we should move out of that apartment. That she has never seen this kind of thing before. I then went back and picked my phone because if one is to say that she acted that way, no one would believe it without a proof. She has already been saying a lot of things depicting that she is being suppressed.
“So I recorded it to show our parents and the security, so that they will know the truth should anything happen. Because the way she was raging and shouting, I was thinking that she would pick something and hit us with it or something like that. That was why we recorded it. Had it been we wanted to release the video, we would have done it earlier. But you know if a video clip enters one or two hands, you can’t control where it will get to.
“There are even other clips that have not been released, I will send them to you to see how she was insulting the security and how she drove them away saying who are they protecting and calling them bloody idiots. Its all on the video clip. That was what happened.”