Garba Shehu pushed for the sack of my media aides- Aisha Buhari

The wife of the Nigeria’s president Aisha Buhari has accused the president’s spokesman Garba Shehu of pushing for the sack of her media aides because she addressed the press on her return to Nigeria on October 13th.

“Mr. Shehu was privy and part of the plan and it’s execution and he was shocked when he realized that I had publicized my return to Nigeria on October 12, 2019 and cleared the air on the many rumours that took over social media, a job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his Principal and his family,” Mrs Buhari said in statement on Wednesday.

“Garba then, vented his anger on the National Television Authority (NTA) Management insisting that the media crew to my office must be sacked.”

She said Shehu eventually succeeded in getting her media aides suspended for doing their job. Mrs Buhari sais she had to intervene to save her staff from losing their jobs by involving the Department of State Services (DSS) in order to ascertain roles played by key actors in the saga.

Mrs Buhari was away from Nigeria for more than a month and was unusually silent. Her silence generated rumours that the oft-mentioned powerful cabal in the presidency has pushed her to the background.

Rumours that President Buhari was going to marry another wife and a viral video in which Mrs Buhari was seen protesting in the presidential villa were touted as proves that cabal was trying to hush Mrs Buhari.

On her arrival in Nigeria on October 13, Mrs Buhari told the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority shortly after she returned to Abuja around 5 am on Sunday morning that she was in the United Kingdom to be with her children.

She said she also saw her doctors while she was there, adding that she has always travelled out for vacation for six weeks every year. This, she said, was nothing unusual.

She said the rumours were decidedly targeted at her family.

“The genesis of this fake news started when my husband fell sick and perpetrators of this act were showing fake Ambulance, Hospital and dead body suggesting that my husband is dead,” she said.

“That time, I received so many calls from other first ladies and Presidents of other countries to confirm; so I called the attention of NCC, NBC and the National Orientation Agency.”

Mrs Buhari said in her statement on Wednesday that the rumours could have been laid to rest if Shehu had done his job.

“[Shehu] kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his Principal and his family,” she said.