3 weeks ago
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One of the daughters of the late Emir of Kano, Zainab Ado Bayero, has denied allegations that she squandered the money given to her family by Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf.
In June 2024, Zainab publicly sought financial assistance when she, along with her mother and brother, faced eviction from their Lagos apartment.
According to Zainab, her family has endured numerous hardships since the passing of their father, including the lack of permanent accommodation and financial difficulties in continuing their education.
In response to her plea, Governor Yusuf stepped in to cover the family’s accommodation expenses and other related costs.
In a statement, the governor’s spokesperson, Mr. Sanusi Bature, confirmed that he visited Lagos on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, on the governor’s behalf.
During the visit, he met with the General Manager of the apartment, Mr Sunel Kumar, who had threatened to evict the Ado Bayero family.
Zainab expressed her gratitude to the governor, stating that his intervention came just in time, as they were on the verge of being evicted due to their inability to pay the rent.
However, two months later, Zainab again sought additional financial assistance, stating that they needed more funds to settle their bills and to help her brother return to school.
This second plea sparked mixed reactions, with some accusing her of mismanaging the money provided by the governor.
But in an interview with Daily Trust on Monday, Zainab refuted the allegation of squandering the money released by the governor.
She said she was not being greedy and had no intentions to extort Governor Yusuf, adding that she only came out to the media again because they needed more help to buy a house and get her brother back to school.
She said: “I can’t be in this situation with no home, my brother not in school and we’ll be going out from place to place. I decided to plead with him (the governor) again. I did interviews, and in those interviews, I thanked him. I’m not blackmailing him but said we need more help to get my brother back to school, to get a home, and anything he wants to help us with. I was trying to reach out to him that instead of rent, maybe he could buy us a home. I was pleading, seeking his assistance. That was why I went back to the media but he felt he had given us enough, he could have just made that clear but not making it seem like I’m greedy or I’m trying to blackmail him. I’m not greedy. I’m not trying to extort the governor if that’s what they’re trying to put out there. That’s not the case.”
She added, “I’m all over the social media being seen as someone greedy. It is easy to judge what you don’t know. My story goes a long way. This is not something that started two months ago. It has been going on for 10 years. I keep saying that it’s like people don’t understand what’s going on. Ever since my Dad died 10 years ago, his family denied us any part of his inheritance and that is why this journey has been going on this way, where we have been trying to survive.”
Zainab lamented how her siblings and people close to their father abandoned them after his death.
“Different people pleaded with my father’s sons to give us something tangible to start living – to buy us a home, to get us back to school, to give us something to do business, but they refused. That is why we are going to our father’s friends, people to help us. The same people will go back to my father’s family and inquire what is going on. Is this true? And at the same time if they inquire from them they will shut down, they won’t help us. I don’t know why, I don’t know what stories they tell them about us. So that is why this has been going on. Some people helped us along the way but it wasn’t much. They would rent a home for us for one year, then the rent would expire and we would be back to the streets with nowhere to go.
“I made it obvious that the Kano State governor paid for our hotel bill and gave us money”, Zainab explained.
English (US) ·