Aisha Buhari under Fire Over Adamu’s Arrest

The wife of Nigeria’s president, Aisha Buhari, has come under fire from human rights attorney Monday Ubani over Aminu Adamu’s purported arrest for an allegedly offensive social media remark.

The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) stated this on Thursday during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

He claimed that many Nigerians mocked Mrs. Patience Jonathan while her husband served as president of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015 but that she didn’t detain any of them.

Because people would always criticise public officials and their wives, he pleaded with them to have tolerance.

“The former President’s wife, Mrs Jonathan, goes viral every time she was called names (but) we never heard a situation where she ordered security agencies to arrest any person.

“As a public officer, you have to be tolerant, if you don’t have tolerance, you will need to arrest everyone because immediately they criticise you, the next thing is that you order the police or the DSS (Department of State Services) to arrest them,” Ubani said.

The Federal University Dutse in Jigawa State and Adamu’s parents verified that the student was detained despite the police’s denials that they detained him for allegedly making a nasty message against Mrs. Buhari on social media.

Ubani, who said his team is working on the case, said, “The arrest was at the instance of the President’s wife, and that has not been denied. He (Adamu) was secretly arraigned yesterday (Wednesday) and is now in a correctional centre, and that has not been denied.

“I think that what has been said is that the President’s wife had added some flesh if you look at the woman when she came, she was looking slimmer, but today, she has added flesh, and that is the truth.”

The attorney claimed that if the President’s wife had been offended, she should have requested that Adamu be invited to an interview and treated civilly. We can’t kill a fly with a sledgehammer, he said.

Ubani said he used to appreciate Mrs Buhari because she tried to “side with the masses, but this act of hers, I condemn it unequivocally”.

“It is absolutely wrong. She has to release that young man. That is the only way we can forgive Mrs Aisha Buhari,” he said.

Adamu is a final year student of Federal University Dutse, Jigawa, in the Department of Environmental Management and Taxocology. He was arrested after criticising the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari. 

Meanwhile, neither the President’s wife nor the Presidency has commented on the matter as of the time of this report.

Since his arrest, many social media users and Amnesty International have called for Adamu’s release.