The Kaduna Progressives Forum, an arm of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kaduna State has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to appoint the former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai into political office.
The political group which came into being in 2014 as a wing of APC, lamented the many failures of the former governor in the past eight years, accusing him of APC’s woeful outing during the presidential election.
In a statement which was jointly signed by the National Coordinator, Abdullahi Garba, General Secretary, Mohammed Baba Zaria and two others, which was made available to journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, described El-Rufai as a religious bigot.
Part of the statement read: “We are members of the All Progressives Congress operating under the aegis of Kaduna Progressives Forum and having been in existence since 2014.
“Our activities and loyalty to the party has been unalloyed, despite some leadership failures we have experienced in the past eight years of Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai as Igovernor.
“Having the future of Kaduna State and APC in mind, we are compelled to draw the attention of His Excellency, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to some salient issues which he must take into consideration in assembling his cabinet and to see reasons, El-Rufai shouldn’t be given any political appointment.”
The group said El-Rufai was responsible for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP winning the presidential election in Kaduna State.
“The Presidential election which held on February 25, 2023, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP won in Kaduna State and the reason could be traced to El-Rufai’s anti-peoples’ policies in the State, particularly in his second tenure.
“He crudely demolished houses, markets without compensation and retrenched teachers and civil servants against advice of elder statesmen in the party, particularly as he was not seeking elective office after his second tenure.
“The development put the party at variance with the wishes of Kaduna people, hence, their rejection of APC at the polls.
The reminded President Tinubu of El-Rufai’s pending unaccounted N32 billion sales of FG houses during his tenure as FCT Minister, saying, he should be made to face the wrath of law.
“El-Rufai is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over N32 billion sales of Federal Government Houses when he was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in the former President Olusegun Obasanjo government.
“The Civil Society Organisations and Transparency and Accountability groups have been urging the Federal Government to expedite prosecution of the former governor, given that he could not account for the money, apart from Court injunctions retraining the EFCC from investigating and prosecuting him.
“Recall that in 2019, Malam El-Rufai threatened foreigners that if they come to Nigeria and interfere in the general election, they would return to their country in “body bags”, an outburst was condemnable across the world.
“Malam Nasir El-Rufai is clearly a religious bigot. This could be best explained by the Southern Kaduna people who are predominantly Christians on how they were maltreated in the last eight years.
“Apart from the muslim-muslim governorship ticket, where he never allow Christian to deputise him, he forced a muslim woman on his successor and the development has pitched against the party.
“He created chiefdoms in Christian dominated south and appointed traditional rulers of muslim religion, thereby promoting hate and malice among the communities.
“Your Excellency, you have proven your mettle of distaste for injustice and corruption and we plead that Malam Nasir El-Rufai should not be offered a slot of appointment representing Kaduna State.”
