Presidency speaks on Governor Fayose’s claim on Aisha Buhari

                                      Garba Shehu SSA to the President

The Presidency has dismissed as laughable the desperate attempt by
Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State to link President Buhari’s wife,
Aisha, to US Congressman William Jefferson’s bribery scandal for which
the American lawmaker was convicted in 2009.
Reacting to Mr. Fayose’s allegations in a press statement, the Senior
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,
said ordinarily the presidency would have ignored Fayose because he
was a man “childishly obsessed with the desire to grab the headlines
and insulting people at will because of his incurably boorish instincts.”
Mr. Garba explained however that the presidency chose to respond on
this occasion for the sake of innocent Nigerians who might be misled
by Mr. Fayose’s shameless and blatant distortion of facts.
He said ignoring Mr. Fayose carried the risk of giving traction and
credibility to outright and brazen falsehoods inconsistent with the status
of anybody that calls himself a Governor or leader.
According to Mr. Shehu, Aisha had no direct, indirect or the remotest
connection with William Jefferson’s corruption scandal in the United
States.
He challenged Mr. Fayose to tell Nigerians if the so-called Aisha whose
pictures he proudly, but ignorantly shared, was the same Aisha married
to President Muhammadu Buhari, or if the Aisha of his idle imagination
had any relationship by blood or any relationship in whatever form with
President Buhari’s wife.
Mr. Shehu also challenged Mr. Fayose to produce evidence from the
records of investigation and subsequent trial of Jefferson to prove that
Mr. Buhari’s wife Aisha was in anyway linked to that scandal. He
explained that common names alone were not enough to automatically
link innocent people to crimes or scandals, especially in an era of
identity thieves.
He further challenged Mr. Fayose to show proof when and where Aisha
Buhari was invited for interrogation in connection with Congressman
William Jefferson’s bribery scandal, let alone indicted for a crime locally
or abroad.
According to the presidential media aide, free speech does not entitle
Governor Fayose to falsely accuse innocent people of crimes they knew
nothing about.
He warned Fayose that Aisha Buhari was entitled to protect her
reputation from being recklessly maligned, adding that political
opposition was not a licence to attack people’s reputation brazenly
without legal consequences.
Culled from: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/205676-
presidency-speaks-governor-fayoses-claim-aisha-buhari.html