Zainab Kassim, a former Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the First Lady, has initiated legal action to enforce her fundamental rights against Aisha Buhari, the President’s wife, and is seeking N100 million in damages from her and other respondents.
The other respondents in the case include the Inspector-General of Police and the Department of State Services.
According to Kassim, she was allegedly abducted by some officers of the Department of State Service on the orders of Aisha and taken to the Presidential Villa where she was severely assaulted, dehumanized, and abused by the first lady with the assistance of officers from the DSS and Police.
This, Kassim claims, was because she deleted some posts on social media.
In the lawsuit, which has the number FHC/ABJ/OS/202/2023, Kassim requested the court to declare her arrest and detention as unlawful. As of the time of writing, the case has yet to be assigned to a judge.
Efforts to contact the spokesperson for the first lady, Mr. Aliyu Abdullahi, were unsuccessful, and he had not responded to a message sent to him on the matter at the time of filing this report.
