According to her, she was forced into marriage at the age of 15 to a Lebanese man, Ali Chawki El Cheikh, who later brought her to Nigeria, where they lived quietly until she met the Nigerian businessman through her husband.
A Lebanese woman, Suhair Aliyu, has accused prominent Nigerian oil magnate Aliyu Abubakar, popularly known as AA Oil, of abandoning her and her children years after allegedly “buying” her and four of her children from her ex-husband for $1 million (about ₦1.5 billion).
In an exclusive interview with SaharaReporters, Suhair narrated a disturbing tale of exploitation, manipulation, and abandonment that began more than a decade ago in Abuja, one she described as “the darkest chapter” of her life.
‘Forced Marriage and Arrival in Nigeria’
According to her, she was forced into marriage at the age of 15 to a Lebanese man, Ali Chawki El Cheikh, who later brought her to Nigeria, where they lived quietly until she met the Nigerian businessman through her husband.
“My name is Suhair Aliyu, and I came to Nigeria with my ex-husband, Ali Chawki El Cheikh. We got married in Lebanon. We are both Lebanese. He got married to me when I was very young, around 15 years old. This made me dependent on him for survival,” she told SaharaReporters.
“When we arrived in Nigeria, I barely went out. I did not even know anywhere in Nigeria. He was a building decorator, and one day he told me he would take me to a place where he worked. I went there with my four children. That was where I first met Aliyu Abubakar, a man I had never seen before.”
‘A Strange Gift and the Beginning of Trouble’
Suhair said her husband introduced her and their children to the oil mogul, and the next day, things took a strange turn.
“The following day, my husband brought a car and told me Alhaji Aliyu asked him to give it to me. I was confused. My husband said it was a gift from him and gave me his number to thank him. I called him, and he said he gave me the gift because he knew I was a good woman. At that time, I didn’t realise he had a bigger plan,” she said.
She alleged that her husband’s attitude toward her changed dramatically after that encounter, and before long, her marriage crumbled.
“One night, my husband didn’t sleep at home. The next morning, I got a call from Aliyu Abubakar. He said it was about my husband and that I should come to his place. I told him I didn’t know anywhere or how to move around. He said he would send his driver to pick me up,” Suhair continued.
According to her, the driver took her to Aliyu’s residence in January 2014, where she was informed that her husband had divorced her.
“He showed me a court document from the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. I was shocked. My husband didn’t even tell me he had divorced me. Then Aliyu proposed to me right there, saying he would marry me and take care of my four children,” she said.
Suhair told SaharaReporters that when she called her husband, he confirmed that he had divorced her, and even admitted that Aliyu had paid him to leave her.
“It was later that I understood he paid my husband $1 million for him to leave me and my children. Aliyu told me he had an agreement with my husband to adopt all my children. He changed their surnames to his,” she alleged.
Marriage To Oil Mogul And Alleged Neglect
Despite her emotional turmoil, she eventually agreed to marry the businessman in mid-2014, hoping for stability.
“After our marriage, Aliyu changed all my children’s names to his. They now bear Aliyu Abubakar as their surname. But not long after, he began saying he could not continue spending on another man’s children,” she recalled.
SaharaReporters sighted the Nigerian passports of the children, which confirmed that they all bear the name of Aliyu Abubakar.
In an effort to keep the peace, Suhair said she gave birth to twins for him, whom he named Marwa and Safa. But things worsened instead of improving.
“Since then, Aliyu has not been nice to me. He has abandoned me and my children and left us to suffer. I can’t even go back to my country because I need his permission to travel with my children; they are all recognised as his,” she lamented.
The woman further made a shocking allegation that the oil mogul is having an affair with her own daughter, Zainab, one of the children he allegedly adopted after paying her former husband.
“The most painful of all this is that Aliyu is having an affair with my daughter, Zainab. He is married to me and sleeping with my child,” she alleged.
Eviction Threat: ‘He Ordered Me To Leave Our Home’
Suhair said that despite the alleged betrayal and years of neglect, the businessman recently sent her and her children a letter ordering them to vacate the apartment where they have been living in Abuja’s highbrow Maitama district.
A copy of the eviction notice, titled “Notice To Vacate Your Current Apartment From Ancestors Court,” and obtained by SaharaReporters, directed her to vacate Flat 7, Block A, Ancestors Court, Odoh Ibeto Close, Off Osun Crescent, Maitama, Abuja, on or before December 10, 2025.
The letter, issued by A Group International Ltd, one of Aliyu Abubakar’s companies, read in part: “Our chairman, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, has ordered your vacation from the apartment you currently occupy… The company is no longer ready to renew the Tenancy Agreement for the said flat, hence the instruction for you to vacate in two months’ time.”
The letter added that the “chairman has magnanimously given” her the household items in the apartment, excluding those belonging to the landlord.
Aliyu Abubakar Denies Allegations
When contacted by SaharaReporters, Aliyu Abubakar denied the allegations that he paid Suhair’s ex-husband to leave her for him to marry.
He also denied having any affairs with Zainab, Suhair’s daughter.
He said, “The claim that I paid her husband, who happened to be someone who worked for me… he always did my POP for my house. It was the same woman who divorced her husband, she told me after she had done that. I did not know anything about their divorce. It is very illogical for her to even say that. Why will I pay $1million to marry her? She is just a liar.
“It is true we dated after their divorce, and she gave me two children, a twin. But I did not abandon them. I always send money to this woman. In fact, I sent money to her this very last month. Sometimes, $10,000, sometimes $20,000.
“She told me that I should help do passports for her children, including the ones belonging to me, that was how those children got my names in their passports. I took them as my children and I have been taking their responsibility.”
Regarding the vacation order, the businessman said, “You see that house, I have been paying the rent for over 12 years because I believe that the woman, since she gave birth to my children, I owe her that. But recently, she kept behaving rudely to me. There was even a time I called her, and she said she did not know me.
“So I have to show her; that was why I asked my company to send that letter, thinking she would come back to me after realising her mistake.”
The oil mogul, known in business circles as AA Oil, has in the past been linked to several high-profile real estate projects in Abuja and Lagos.
Past Investigations
He has also been previously investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged involvement in money laundering and suspicious transactions running into billions of naira.
SaharaReporters reported in January 2022 how Aliyu was detained by EFCC, in connection with probes into the Malabu oil and gas fraud.
SaharaReporters learnt that the businessman was subsequently detained at the commission’s headquarters and grilled for several hours.
According to an insider source, EFCC, through intelligence gathered, had the latest materials and evidence that exposed fraudulent manipulations of information and evidence presented by former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, and Aliyu in the defence of a $2 million (equivalent of N300 million at the time) cash transaction between the duo.
The EFCC had alleged that Adoke accepted the cash in violation of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, but the court found the evidence insufficient.
However, in March 2024, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) discharged Adoke, Aliyu, and five others over allegations tied to the controversial Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245, also known as the Malabu oil deal.
The court ruled that the EFCC had filed a “poorly drafted charge” and failed to establish a prima facie case against the defendants.
Then, in April 2024, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja upheld a “no-case submission” by Adoke in a separate money laundering case involving the N300 million cash transaction with Aliyu.
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