The Ghanaian Minaret

Accra – The Sabon Zango residence of Hajia Adiza Awudu, the paternal aunt of the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, was attacked by arsonists on Monday dawn.

An unknown assailant tried to set the residence ablaze at about 2:00 am by sprinkling a flammable fluid and setting fire to the window of the elderly woman.

The timely intervention of neighbours and inhabitants, however, averted what would have been a catastrophe for the sister of Ahmed Ramadhan, the former Chairman of the People’s National Congress (PNC).

The suspect quickly fled the scene when an alarm was raised. At the time of the attack, the elderly woman was in the company of her daughter and a granddaughter who has recently had a baby.

Many relatives and some neighbours have since thronged the residence, which is the birthplace of the second lady, to console Hajia Adiza, who is affectionately called Hajia Aya.

Among those who visited the old lady was Alhaji Ramadan, the father of Samira Bawumia and Mohammed Adamu Ramadan, Member of Parliament (MP) Elect for the Adenta Constituency and nephew of Hajia Aya.

At the time of a visit to the residence on Tuesday at about 11:00 am, the damaged window had been repaired while the family was preparing to go to the police station.

In an interview, the daughter of Hajia Aya, Raisatu Gibril Adams, expressed shock at the turn of events, saying that such a gruesome attack had never been experienced by a family that had a political history spanning decades.

“From our PNC days, what we know is that political opponents will come to tease our late grandmother humorously. We never anticipated such a thing could happen,” she said.

Giving an account of what happened on Monday, she said “It has become a habit for me to wake up at 2:00 am. While lying down, I could hear a smell and it got me wondering where it was emanating from.

“It wasn’t long before I heard someone lit a match and there were flames everywhere. It was then that I called them to wake up as someone has come to kill us,” she added.

A granddaughter, Sa’ada Lawal, took to social media (Facebook) to express her disgust at the attack by saying, “My Granny should be far from your evil plot because the Grace of Allah is protecting her.”

She continued, “This woman who feeds the community on a daily basis will not burn into ashes. Her only surviving sibling is Ahmed Ramadan; their generation will see greatness in abundance. It is not her fault that Samira Bawumia is the Second Lady of Ghana. God bestowed that, and you cannot undo it.”