Late President Umaru Yar’adua’s wife Turai visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo weekend in his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun state for undisclosed reasons. The visit was meant to be kept secret, sources told Daily Trust yesterday, it was the main reason that by 8am on Saturday Turai was on her way out from Obasanjo’s residence in a convoy of three vehicles.
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The visit came at a time her daughter, Zainab, and wife of former Kebbi state Governor Saidu Dakingari was under investigation by the anti-graft agency. She is being questioned over alleged N2 billion fraud perpetrated during her husband’s tenure as governor of Kebbi state.
Zainab was questioned and released by EFCC agents on July 22, but she is due to return today for further interrogation.
Premium Times reported yesterday that Mrs. Yar’Adua was accompanied to the former president’s residence by businessman Kenny Martins. But Martins said in an interview with Daily Trust that he was not part of the visit.The former first lady met privately with Chief Obasanjo for more than an hour before departing, Premium Times said. It is the former first lady’s visit to Mr. Obasanjo since her husband died in office in 2010 after prolonged illness.
Obasanjo was also among the prominent Nigerians who asked Yar’adua to resign over his ill health.
Those close to her said she thanked the former president for finding her late husband a worthy successor, and pleaded with him to forgive her and her family for whatever wrong they might have done to him during Yar’adua’s tenure.
Mr. Obasanjo, who helped the late president to power in 2007, had grown critical of the former president’s immediate family and associates who he accused of concealing Yar’adua’s health status and blocked then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, from assuming power.
According to Premium Times, Turai pleaded with Mr. Obasanjo to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari not to harass or victimize her family members or those who had worked with her husband.
“She specifically intimated the former President of the ongoing probe of one of her daughters, Zainab, by the EFCC. She believed it is a witch-hunt, a ploy by the Buhari government to get at her family,” one of our sources said.
“It is true that she visited on Saturday,” an aide to Obasanjo said. “I don’t know exactly what she discussed with Baba (Obasanjo). But I think it is safe to say she came to greet him and discuss issues relevant to the two families.”
I did not accompany Turai - Martins
Chief Kenny Martins, former Chairman of the Police Service Commission, reacting to the report said: “The last time I saw her (Turai) was before her husband was flown overseas for treatment. My wife also drew my attention to it, and I told her not to be bothered, since I was not with her with Baba Obasanjo,” an aide quoted Martins as having said, when he was called on phone to react.
An aide to Chief Obasanjo told Daily Trust in Abeokuta yesterday that “only two persons, Baba and the woman (Turai) met, so I don’t know where they got their story from.
“You were here yesterday (Sunday) when Baba was still commenting on irresponsible journalism. This is one of them. We are shocked by this publication,” the aide told our Correspondent, who visited the former president’s residence on a fact-finding mission at about 6.00pm.
It’s wrong to impute meanings to her visit - family
A member of the Yar’adua’s family told Daily Trust last night in a telephone interview that it was wrong for people to be reading meanings into the visit.
“It is not proper to start speculating on the visit of the former first lady to Obasanjo,” the family member who said he was not aware of the reason for the visit said.
“Though she is a former first lady, but still has a private life like other Nigerians. She has every right to visit whoever she so wishes anywhere, anytime. Please leave her alone,” the family member said.
On whether the visit has any link with her daughter’s case in the EFCC, he said he was not aware. “I am not aware of that. But you should know that she has right to visit anybody, anywhere. It is her private life,” he said.
He said “Why do you think that the visit must have anything to do with her daughter’s case? It may be premised on other personal issues, you know. Stop jumping to conclusions. It is better to leave her alone and concentrate on the people in power.”
-Daily Trust
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