These are not the best of times for the former Governor of Kaduna State and one-time Minister of the Federal Capital Territory [FCT] in the person of Malam Nasiru El Rufai following a recent resolution by the Kaduna State House of Assembly which urged security and anti-corruption agencies to commence investigation and prosecution of the former governor over alleged N423billion fraud.
This comes amidst efforts to douse the swelling tension between the former governor Kaduna State and the current governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani. Available information indicates both El Rufai and Sani had fallen out of favour with each other – and had begun to witch-hunt themselves.
Through this, the national party of the All Progressive Congress [APC] who had made behind the scene moves at resolving issues between to two political gladiators in order to curtail anticipated damages to the APC in the State, failed. For reasons unknown to 247ureports.com, the peace efforts made by the leaders of the APC failed to yield ‘expected’ results. An unverified but reliable source indicated that the two men were “unwilling” to “cooperate” with the party.
And so, in a sudden twist, according a top source who claims to be knowledgeable of the ongoings within the APC, stakeholders within the party decided to turn away from resolving the fracas – and instead joined forces with the current Governor of Kaduna State to expose the alleged fraudulent activities engaged by the El Rufai administration. The source claims the party found reason to join the legislators in call for the anti-graft agencies to further probe the activities of the former governor – after having examined the report of the adhoc committee set up by the Kaduna State House of Assembly – led by Hon Henry Magaji Danjuma.
On Wednesday, June 5, 2024, the Kaduna State House of Assembly following an investigation of the ad-hoc committee of the House led by the Hon. Henry Magaji Danjuma urged antigraft agencies to commence the investigation and prosecution of the immediate-past governor of the State, Nasir El-Rufai, and some other indicted members of his cabinet over alleged N423bn fraud.
The findings of the investigation pointed to several loans which were obtained under former Governor El-Rufai-led administration that were not used for their intended purposes, and in some cases, due processes were not followed in securing the loans.
The Committee’s report, which was immediately adopted and its recommendations forwarded to Governor Uba Sani for immediate action, also alleged that El-Rufa’i was involved in complicit activities with commissioners and heads of parastatals to defraud the state by issuing directives to the Kaduna State Public Procurement Agency (KADPPA) to circumvent due process in the payment of contractors vide letter dated June 21, 2021.
The Committee alleged that some government contractors were overpaid while others collected money without executing the assigned projects. It recommended that the contractors including: Ronchess Global Resources PLC, Chamberlayne Global Concept Ltd, and M/S Prestige Integrated Services Ltd, among others, should refund N36.3 billion, being monies paid for work either not done, overpayment or diversion to the Kaduna State Government.
According to our source, the national APC may not interfere with the ongoing agitation by the Kaduna State legislators to investigate and prosecute the former governor of Kaduna State. Instead, “they have started to facilitate the process latently”.
