A former Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the First Lady, Mrs Zainab Kassim has filed a suit for the enforcement of her fundamental rights against the President’s wife, Aisha Buhari, while demanding N100 million as damages from her and other respondents.
The other respondents in the case are the Inspector-General of Police and the Department of State Services.
Kassim served the First Lady as Personal Assistant from June 2015 to September 2019, and was later appointed as Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the First Lady from September 2019 to February 2022 when she was disengaged.
She said that some officers of the Department of State Service (DSS), reportedly acting on the orders of Mrs Buhari, allegedly abducted her and took her to the Presidential Villa where she was severely assaulted, dehumanised, and abused by the First Lady with the support of DSS officers and Police for deleting her posts on social media.
The statement read: “On 18 November, 2022, acting on the orders of Mrs Aisha Buhari, DSS officers abducted Mrs Zainab Kassim and took her to the Presidential Villa where she was severely assaulted, dehumanised and abused by the First Lady herself and officers of the DSS and Police, on unsubstantiated accusations of deleting the First Lady’s posts on social media.
“Mrs Zainab was eventually detained in very horrible conditions for four (4) days and she was denied access to her family, lawyers and to her medications even though she informed them that she was hypertensive. In the course of her incarceration, she fainted and had to be rushed to hospital for medical treatment.
“Even after her release, persons acting on behalf of the First Lady have continued to threaten and harass Mrs Zainab Kassim not to attempt to seek redress in court over the breach of her rights by the First Lady”.
Efforts to get the spokesperson for the First Lady, Mr Aliyu Abdullahi were not successful. Also, he had yet to reply to a message sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report.
