Zainab Jummai Ado Bayero, one of the daughters of the late Emir of Kano, has refuted claims that she squandered the money Kano state Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf gave her family.
In June this year, Bayero had come out to the public to seek financial support when she, alongside her mother and brother, was on the brink of being evicted from a Lagos apartment.
According to Zainab, her family had been going through a lot of difficulties since the demise of their father including not having accommodation on their own and money to continue with their education.
Following the plea, the Kano state Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, reached out to the royal family to settle their accommodation bill and other expenses.
In a statement, the governor’s spokesperson, Mr. Sanusi Bature, said he had visited Lagos on Tuesday 25th June, 2024 at the behest of the governor to meet with the General Manager of the apartment where the Ado Bayero family had lived since early this year, Mr. Sunel Kumar, who vowed to evict them.
Zainab, who thanked the governor for the gesture, reportedly said that the intervention had come at the right time as some youths had been mobilised to evict them from the apartment because they were unable to pay the rent.
However, two months later, Bayero came out again to solicit for more help, pleading that they needed more money to be able to settle their bills and take her brother back to school.
This generated mixed reactions as some persons said she squandered the money the governor sent to her and the family.
But , Zainab in an interview refuted the allegation of squandering the money released by the governor.
She said she was not being greedy and has no intentions to extort Governor Yusuf, adding that she only came out to the media again because they needed more help to buy house and get her brother back to school.
“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, anything he wants to help us with. I was trying to reach out to him that instead of rent, maybe if 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 has 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 seeing as someone who is 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 their 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 shutdown, 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 will be back to the streets with no where to go.
“I made it obvious that the Kano State governor paid for our hotel bill and gave us money.”