Muhammadu Buhari’s Personal Assistant and Private Secretary, Sabiu
‘Tunde’ Yusuf, and his wife, Aisha, the First Lady, gathers dust.According to findings by SaharaReporters, trouble started on Monday when
Yusuf returned from a private trip to Lagos where he had journeyed to
alongside five women from Daura, Kano, and Abuja to spend the weekend.
Upon his return to the Villa, he was asked by President Buhari’s Aide De
Camp, Mohammed Lawal Abubakar, Chief Personal Security Officer,
Abdulkarim Dauda, to self-isolate in order to protect the President and
the entire State House Staff since he had earlier met with recent
contacts of late former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, who passed away recently from
Coronavirus related complications.
But rather than heed the advice of the men by embarking on a 14-day
self-isolation, Yusuf, one of the most powerful and influential
individuals around President Buhari, flatly refused and pushed his way
into the Villa.
Worried that his presence could expose them to danger, the first family
intervened in the matter on Thursday but rather than a solution being
arrived at, things quickly spilled out of control after the security
attached to the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, moved in and had Yusuf removed
from the Presidential Villa.
Feeling slighted by that incident, the young man said to be in his early
30s connived with Buhari’s Chief Security Officer, Idris Kassim, to have
the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma,
arrest the First Lady’s ADC, Usman Shugaba, Escort Commander and other
policemen attached to the first family.
SaharaReporters reliably gathered that all the arrested security attache
to the First Lady are still in police cell on the orders of the CSO to
the President and Yusuf.
A source in the Villa, who confirmed the development to SaharaReporters,
said, “Since the death of late Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba
Kyari, Yusuf had almost become the defacto “head of state” calling the
shots in Aso Villa.
“The ADC and Escort Commander of the First Lady were unlawfully detained
by the FCT Commissioner of Police under the instructions of the Chief
Security Officer to the President, Mr Idris Kassim, and Yusuf.
“Yusuf in flagrant disregard of the Quarantine Act signed by the
President, which prohibited interstate travels and in clear violation of
the NCDC protocols and guidelines, traveled to Lagos and had seen
visitors of more than 15 people every day against the advice of people
he is working with.
“After his refusal to heed the call by the President’s security men, on
Thursday evening, the first family got involved and insisted that he
goes on self-isolation and again for the second time he refused.
“The first family recalled to him when one of the daughters of the
President returned from school in London and had to undergo 14 days
isolation. They said if she could do that, why couldn’t he do the same.
When the situation was getting out of hand, the security attached to the
First Lady had to intervene peacefully. Yusuf left the State House only
for him and the President’s CSO to give directives to the FCT Police
Commissioner to arrest the First Lady’s ADC, Escort Commander and other
policemen attached to the first family.
“The protocols of the First Lady are still in police detention.”
Regarded as one of the wealthiest young men in Nigeria today, Yusuf
until his appointment by President Buhari was said to be surviving on
proceeds made from the sale of call cards in his native Daura, a small
community in Katsina State in the Northern part of the country.
He is said to have gotten the name ‘Tunde’ after being likened to late
Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari’s second in command during his military regime in
the early 1980s, who was known to be powerful and strategic.
During Buhari’s 77th birthday in December 2019, Yusuf is said to have
worn a Patek Phillipe leather wristwatch valued at $99,995.00 – about
N36m.
Presidency sources said that the young man had amassed so much wealth in
a short space of time that he can almost afford anything money can buy
these days despite not from a wealthy background or have any known work
history apart from serving in Buhari’s government.
Despite his glaring excesses and abuse for laid down procedures,
President Buhari has refrained from calling Yusuf to order, it was
gathered.
Interestingly, it is not the first time that individuals in the
presidency would be flexing muscles against the First Lady and her
family – in December 2019 for instance, Mrs. Buhari accused Senior
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, as
well as Mamman Daura, a nephew and close ally of her husband, of working
against the first family.
She said that while Daura had continued to give a presidential directive
without Buhari’s knowledge, Shehu had switched his loyalty from her
husband to some cabals within the Presidency.
In a strong-worded statement, Mrs. Buhari disclosed how Shehu had
contributed to soiling her name.
She said at the time, “As spokesperson for the President, he has the
onerous responsibility of managing the image of the President and all
the good works that he is executing in the country. Rather than face
this responsibility squarely, he has shifted his loyalty from the
President to others who have no stake in the compact that the President
signed with Nigerians on May 29, 2015 and 2019.
“To make matters worse, Mr Shehu has presented himself to these people
as a willing tool and executioner of their antics from the corridors of
power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of the
President. This should not be so. The blatant meddling in the affairs of
a First Lady of a country is a continuation of the prodigal actions of
those that he serves.
“Based on Garba Shehu’s misguided sense of loyalty and inability to stay
true and loyal to one person or group, it has become apparent that all
trust has broken down between him and my family due to the many
embarrassments he has caused the Presidency and the first family.”