Zainab Kassim, ex-presidential aide, files suit against Aisha Buhari over ‘rights abuse’

Zainab Kassim, a former special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari in the office of the first lady, has filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit against Aisha Buhari.

In a statement by ‘Deji Ajare, the executive director of Sterling Solicitors, counsel to Kassim, the former aide is demanding N100 million as damages, with Aisha Buhari, the inspector-general of police, and the Department of State Services (DSS) listed as defendants.

BACKGROUND

Kassim was said to have been taken into custody by security agents on November 18, 2022.

The former aide was later reportedly taken to the presidential villa where she was alleged to have been “assaulted, dehumanised, and abused by the first lady herself and officers of the DSS and Police over 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,” the statement reads in part.

“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.”

KASSIM PRAYS COURT TO DECLARE HER DETENTION UNLAWFUL

According to the suit filed by Sterling Solicitors, Kassim wants a federal high court sitting in Abuja to declare her arrest and detention as unlawful.

She also wants the court to declare her “torture, brutalisation and dehumanisation” as violation of her right to the dignity of a human person.

Kassim is also seeking “an order restraining the respondents either by themselves or their agents or subordinates from further abducting, arresting, detaining, torturing or threatening to abduct, arrest, detain or assassinate the applicant or otherwise violating the fundamental rights of the applicant”.

She is also seeking “damages, jointly and severally against the respondents, in the sum of N100,000,000.00 (One Hundred Million Naira) only”.