How My Son-In-Law Contracted Fake Marriage With Ex-President Buhari And Myself – Food Vendor
The mainstream and social media went agog recently when Daily Trust reported how the son-in-law of a 40-year-old Saudatu Aliyu deceived her into believing that…
Abubakar Akote, Minna
The mainstream and social media went agog recently when Daily Trust reported how the son-in-law of a 40-year-old Saudatu Aliyu deceived her into believing that he was contracting marriage between her and former President Muhammadu Buhari. In this interview, Saudatu shared her experience with her daughter and son-in-law.
You recently won a court judgement against your son-in-law, Gambo Adamu, who deceitfully ‘contracted’ your marriage with ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. What really transpired?
I got to know Gambo Adamu while selling food at Kure Ultramodern Market. That was in 2016. He worked as a private security at the market. We became familiar because he was one of my regular customers.
I I spent a lot of money preparing the foods. He told me to take note of whatever I spent so that they would pay me back.
One day, he said Buhari was ready for the wedding and I should begin to buy wears, adding that the former president wouldn’t want an elaborate ceremony. He wanted the wedding fatiha done secretly.
Did you buy the wedding wears as he requested?
I bought seven different cloths (and co) for the wedding ceremony. I bought different foot-wears, which he collected to go and show the president for approval. He collected N50, 000 as transport fare for that journey also. And he told me he embarked on each journey with his wife. When he came back, he said Buhari said the cloths were okay and he was going to pay N100,000 as bride price. He gave me the N100, 000.
While I was eager to get the marriage contracted, I heard that he was leaving Minna for Kano on transfer. They didn’t even let me know that they were leaving Minna. But luckily for me, the day they were travelling, at the Niger State Transport Authority park at Tunga market, somebody saw them and called me, saying that my son-in-law was transferred to Kano and I didn’t inform her. I told her that I didn’t know. That was when I called him and he told me that it was an emergency and he was asked not to let anybody know about it. I prayed for them.
After they arrived Kano, my daughter called me, saying that a meeting was scheduled with Buhari’s representatives in Kano and I needed to be there. I travelled to join them in Kano for the meeting. I spent two weeks in Kano to meet with Buhari’s representatives to arrange for the wedding. At that meeting, a man dressed in northern traditional wears was introduced to me as Hadi Sirika, Buhari’s representative Buhari from Abuja. In fact, the man re-introduced himself to me and we had a discussion. He said four of them were billed to come from Abuja but others couldn’t make it. That was why he came alone. I spent a lot on refreshment because I did as my son in-law directed me to do. The Hadi Sirika promised to take my message to Buhari after our meeting.
I spent all my savings from my restaurant business on these movements. But while we were doing all these, I wasn’t comfortable; I was still in doubt and gripped with fear. I was wondering how former President Buhari did not see any woman to marry, except me.
He stayed in Kano for one year before moving back to Minna with his wife, saying he was brought back. They came back to Minna in 2019. He married my daughter in 2018.
When he returned to Minna, I was the one that paid for the house they rented in Dutsen-Kura at N120, 000. He asked me again to rent an office, which I did at the cost of N120,000, totalling N240,000. I bought office equipment, including plasma television, tables and chairs; they are all with him. In that house, they were later asked to vacate because the other tenants complained that they were bringing strange people to their house, even in the night; therefore, they didn’t trust them.
After that, he asked me to rent a house where I would stay with Buhari if he paid me a visit after our wedding. I rented a two-bedroom flat at the cost of N250,000 at the Moris Area.
He later told me that Buhari had confided in him that I would succeed Abba Kyari as his chief of staff. Then he said that since I was going to work in the Villa, government was going to check me to know what I had. I asked how they were going to do that and he said I should begin to save the profits I made from my business with him every day, with a promise that he was going to take record of them. I started giving him N8,000 and later increased it to N15,000 every day.
He also came to me, saying the federal government was going to give us a N300million loan, which I rejected. I told him I was not interested in any loan. He told me that it was Buhari that made that arrangement for me and it was a grant, which I didn’t need to pay back.
Did the wedding fatiha take place?
After I rented the two-bedroom flat where I was going to stay with Buhari at Moris Area, he brought a basket of big kola-nuts for me. I had never seen kola-nuts as big as those he brought for me. He also brought fried chicken wrapped in a nylon. He said my marriage had already been contracted with President Buhari in Abuja. It was on January 31, 2020. That was the day he said the marriage was contracted in Abuja without even informing me.
I angrily asked how he would contract my marriage without informing me to at least tell my parents. Even if I fell from a tree, I should be asked to get guardians to stand for me. He said Buhari didn’t want an elaborate ceremony and that was why he did it secretly. I said even if he didn’t want an elaborate ceremony he would have let my parents know and I needed to be informed too as a bride.
After waiting for close to three years, I insisted that I wanted to see my husband. I rented an apartment, bought cloths for the wedding but didn’t set my eyes on the groom.
Did he ever call anyone on phone to say that you should talk to Buhari?
He didn’t do that, even once. But sometimes he would be on phone and tell me that he was speaking with Buhari. And sometimes he would give me a time the former president wanted to talk to me, but that never happened. Sometimes he would deliberately delay me so that the time Buhari gave him would pass and he would blame me for missing the opportunity. It was later that I began to think it was a deliberate plan to extort me.
Do you think he used charms against you?
There was a time he brought me three shirts and some charms. He said as someone who was going to stay in the Presidential Villa, I needed to fortify myself with charms because a lot of witch-hunting was going on there. He said the former president asked him to inform me to get prepared before relocating to the Villa. I told him I didn’t have time to go after fortune tellers to acquire charms and he said he was going to help me with some. I didn’t have time because I spent the whole day in the restaurant.
He brought three shirts and said I should give one out as charity to a fair in complexion woman and the second one to a black in complexion man. He said I should wear one until it became very dirty and I should then wash it and fetch the dirty water in a small bottle and bring for him. I did exactly as he directed. He also brought some medicines in a gallon, which he asked me to drink, saying that each time I wanted to take it I should hold my breath until I finished it. That was how I was drinking it. He also collected some of my cloths, saying they were going to organise special prayers and my cloths would be given out as charity. He also told me that he needed my blood to do some things. He asked me to go to hospital and ask them to draw my blood and pour it into a bottle and give me to bring for him. But when I went to a hospital, lab officials told me that it was against the rules of their job, so they didn’t do it. When I went back home, he said I should try another hospital but I didn’t go again even when he kept giving me pressure to go and get him my blood.
He later said he was nominated for a course in Lagos and he needed N125,000. I emptied my treasury and gave him the money.
With all these incidents, did you ever engage his wife (your daughter) in a discussion to tell you the truth?
In fact, if her husband brought any issue, I would call her to confirm it. And each time I called her, she would swear that all her husband said was true. My daughter connived with her husband to cheat me. I believed my daughter would not cheat me, that was why I kept trusting what her husband was telling me.
He later interviewed me to know what I liked and what I didn’t like and the countries I would love to visit, saying Buhari asked him to write them down and bring for him. While he was asking me questions, he was writing them down.
What happened to the house you rented to stay with your Buhari?
After one year, the first house I rented at Moris Area was due for renewal. I left there and rented a more befitting one at the Dutsen-Kura Area at the cost of N450,000. The new apartment I rented had guest rooms for Buhari’s entourage. The money I had with me was not even up to N450,000 to pay for the new apartment I wanted to rent, so I had to use the N100,000 he gave me as pride price to complete the rent fee.
For the money I told you I was giving to him from the proceeds of my business, he later told me that he deposited it into a bank account belonging to Buhari’s mother, Hajiya Amina.
Did you ever think that former President Buhari was coming to take you to Aso Rock Villa?
They gave me a date that Buhari was coming to take me to Abuja to stay with him. One year after, he said we should celebrate one-year wedding anniversary, so I insisted on seeing Buhari if truly my marriage was contracted. He insisted that a date had been fixed. He gave me May 29, 2021. I quickly informed my father and mother to get prepared to receive President Buhari as their guest. But we didn’t see him.
I told my son-in-law that if I didn’t see Buhari on May 29, 2021, I would accept marriage proposal from anyone because I couldn’t continue to wait because my father was giving me pressure to remarry. That date came and I didn’t see any Buhari coming to take me to his house.
All the profits I made from my business were extorted. All the records he claimed to have kept are still with him. He didn’t allow me access to them. The money he extorted from me was enough to build me houses and start something bigger.
What action did you take at last?
When the date they gave me elapsed, I called him and his wife and told them that I was no longer interested. I told them I was going to get married to anyone that was serious. I told them to refund all my money. And my father was giving me pressure to remarry because he didn’t want me to die without remarrying, so, I accepted the man I remarried now.
Why didn’t you approach the court earlier than you did?
We started having problems when I told them to refund my money. At that point, my daughter and her husband blocked my number from accessing them via phone. I kept trying to call them but in vain. I later went to their house to check them. Getting to their house, I knocked at the gate and my daughter came out. After opening the gate, she went inside and came out few minutes later, wearing a nose mask. As she opened the gate, I was about going in while she wanted to go out of the house. I asked where she was going. I told her I came to see her but she said she was going to call her husband. I said she should call him on phone but she said she didn’t have airtime.
What happened after that?
I met him at Fodio Plaza with little children, most of who were orphans. I knew some of them, so, I asked them to leave. I asked why his number had not been going through and he confirmed to me that he had blocked my line. I asked if that was how he wanted to pay me back.
I told him to refund all the money he extorted from me and he said he didn’t like what I was doing to him, saying my wealth was an inheritance that he too would benefit from. I told him that he had no right to inherit my property and he said he was marrying my daughter so was like a son to me.
I told him that his charms had expired and he said he had nothing to give back to me. From there, I reported the matter at the National Human Rights Commission. I couldn’t control my tears. I was just imagining things within me.
Later, he invited the police to arrest me and I followed them to the station. While we were at the police station, my daughter came to join us. They asked if she knew me and she denied me. She told the police that she had never met me. She still called me a kidnapper at the police station. People wanted to flog her for denying me.
After listening to us, the police asked us to go and come back the following day. When we came the next day, they said it was a family issue, so we should go and settle it at home. From there, my daughter started crying and begging me to forgive her.
[b]I gave him a total of what I spent, amounting to N5 million. He accepted to pay me my money.
After we had reached an agreement, he went to GRA police station to arrest and detain me. He insisted that the police should detain me. After I narrated my ordeal, the police told him that there was no reason to detain me. The police accompanied and got me a tricycle to take me home and they gave the tricycle rider a number to call if anybody stopped us on the way.
They asked us to come back the following day. When we went back to GRA police station, I narrated the story to the police; that was when police locked him up. Later, they said it was a family matter and we should go and settle it.
He later engaged a lawyer who was coming to beg me to forgive him and forfeit the money.
I later reported at the headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and was directed to lodge a complaint at the Magistrate’s Court.
What is the status of your daughter’s marriage with him?
She called me a liar, even at the police station. She said I was lying against her husband. Even in the courtroom, she was solidly behind her husband. I presented my witnesses before the court while his wife was his witness.[/b]
After her husband was sentenced to prison, she left Minna for Yola. Her brothers called to inform me that she was in Yola. She asked her brothers to beg me to forgive her. I told them that I won’t forgive her until she told them the truth because she was the one that kept on convincing me that what her husband was saying were true.
I have no business with their marriage. If they still love each other, let them continue. If she is no longer interested, they should find a way out of it. I have no business with that.
Would you forgive your son-in-law if he begs for forgiveness?
I can only forgive him after he might have paid the N2million compensation the court asked him to pay me.
Is his wife the only child you have?
I have five children; she is the number five. The remaining four are in Yola with their father.
