Nasir El-Rufai, the former Governor of Kaduna State, has vehemently rejected the Kaduna State House of Assembly’s accusations against his administration, dismissing them as a “politically motivated hatchet job.”
This declaration came in response to the Assembly’s adoption of a report from its ad-hoc committee tasked with investigating El-Rufai’s governance of the state from May 2015 to May 2023.
In a statement released on Wednesday through his spokesperson, Muyiwa Adekeye, El-Rufai asserted that his administration operated with integrity and competence throughout its eight-year tenure.
He refuted the allegations leveled against him by the Assembly, characterizing them as baseless and designed to tarnish his reputation.
The ad-hoc committee, chaired by Henry Zacharia, presented its report to the Assembly, alleging mismanagement of funds and irregularities in the procurement process during El-Rufai’s administration.
The committee claimed that loans obtained during this period were not utilized for their intended purposes and highlighted discrepancies in due process compliance.
Addressing the Assembly’s accusations, Yusuf Liman, the Speaker of the Assembly, asserted that a staggering sum of N423 billion was allegedly misappropriated by El-Rufai’s administration, leading to substantial liabilities for the state.
Condemning the committee’s findings as “scandalous,” El-Rufai’s spokesperson affirmed the former governor’s commitment to integrity and accountability in governance. He criticized the Assembly for conducting what he deemed a biased and predetermined inquiry, devoid of fairness and impartiality.
El-Rufai’s spokesperson further emphasized that the former governor had served Kaduna State diligently and within the confines of the law.
He denounced the probe as a politically motivated smear campaign and urged Nigerians to disregard its conclusions.
As tensions escalate between El-Rufai and the Kaduna State House of Assembly, the veracity of the committee’s allegations and the implications for the state’s political landscape remain subjects of intense scrutiny.
With both sides entrenched in their positions, the fallout from this dispute is likely to reverberate across the region’s political spectrum.