Following the news of President Mohammadu Buhari’s mariage to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster and Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, the alleged new wife on Friday, denied commenting on rumors of her getting married to the President.
She refuted tweets made using her name by a parody account.
The account had tweeted: “There have been several speculations in media regarding Marriage between Myself and Baba Buhari.
“I will like to clarify this, that me and Baba Buhari have been old-time friends and Her Excellency Aisha is my good friend and a sister. I will like to maintain this good relationship.
“Dear Nigerians, please Kindly ignore all rumors as this is not true. We’re currently completely focused on making sure we have a better Nigeria. Let’s continue to pray for our dear country Nigeria. God Bless.”
Reacting, Sadiya Farouq, via her handle (@Sadiya_farouq) issued a disclaimer.
She tweeted: “It has come to my attention that a fake Twitter account @Sadiya_farouq_ has been created in my name.
“I wish to inform my followers and well-meaning Nigerians to disregard the handle and any information posted on it. My official Twitter handle remains @Sadiya_farouq”
In the last 48 hours, social media has been awash with speculation that the minister and the nation’s leader were dating and close to taking the alleged affair to the next level.
This followed First Lady Aisha Buhari’s continued absence from Nigeria.
She has been out of the Presidential Villa since her trip to Saudi Arabia and believed to be in London.
Also on Friday, however, Aisha Buhari, posted about the Girl Child challenges.
She tweeted: “Today, I join millions of girls around the world to celebrate this year’s international day of the girl child, the theme for this year is, “GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable”.
“I am happy to note the progress that has been made in the area of activism by girls to protect their gender.
“I want to state that more needs to be done especially to address gender-based violence which seems to be more pronounced recently. All hands must be on deck to achieve this.
Meanwhile, the former Special Assistant on Social Media to the former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri tweeted on Thursday night, saying that the rumour of the second wife is true, although the date of the marriage is not known yet.
“Apparently, the second wife story is true. What can’t be confirmed is the date of the wedding fatiha. This man shouldn’t tempt his Creator. He just recovered from serious ill health and now he wants to add another yarinya! Second Term, Second Wife! Baba o! #SecondTermSecondWife”.
More concretely, a presidential spokesman Femi Adesina in a chat with Tribune has debunked any marriage claims.
“How will anyone expect that the President will be getting married and it will be a secret affair?” Adesina said.
“Nigerians like to gist and play banters, as it is another way of relaxation for many, and they have seen the president as a personality that suits their side talks. It is bad, but that is what happens.”
“On the claims that Nigeria’s First Lady is back to the country is false. The video purportedly showing her back to the villa is an old video”, Mrs Buhari’s aide.
Her aide also confirmed to BBC Pidgin that the video is an old video. She said it happened about two years ago. The source, however, disclosed that Mrs Buhari and the president had a little misunderstanding and that might be the reason she is still in London.
