A coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs), on Thursday, September 4, 2025, called on the nation’s security agencies to as a matter of national interest and concern, arrest and interrogate the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai to ascertain the level of his culpability on his confessional statement in which he admitted paying ransom to foreign armed herdsmen to stop killing in the state.
The Coalition emphasised that El-Rufai cannot be over looked for his penchant to make unsubstantiated claims, dishing out lies, disobedience of court orders, and flagrant abuse of citizens rights.
The CSOs which included the ‘Concerned Progressives Nigerians In Diaspora (CPND)’, ‘Congress of Northern Youths (CNY)’ and ‘Northern Coalition for Democracy And Justice (NCDJ)’, also urged the security agencies to also investigate why he strongly condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden by the United States in Afghanistan while writing in a newspaper column.
The coalition of the CSO equally demanded a thorough investigation of the allegations made by El-Rufai against his successor and incumbent Governor of the State, Senator Uba Sani.
The coalition in statement by its Convener, Comrade Musa Abdullahi and Secretary-General, Comrade Victor John, expressed disbelieve that while El-Rufai made an open confession on his exploits, fraternization and ransom payment to foreign armed herdsmen whose atrocities resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Nigerians during his reign as Governor of Kaduna State, he is walking the stress as a free man.
The group further said; “It is on record that he condemned the United States on the killing of Osama bin Laden outside the American soil as being illegal. The security agencies are urged to establish a nexus between the resurgence of banditry across the North with El-Rufai’s past ransom payment to foreign bandits and his utterances recently.
“It is apparent that the motivations and promptings of El-Rufai has nothing to do with safe guarding the interest of the Nigerian people, but a dark agenda to cause an inter ethnic disharmony in the country,” it stated.
The Coalition also urged the relevant security agencies to investigate El-Rufai’s recent suspicious visit to Sokoto State under the guise of meeting with politicians, emphasising that his past record of ransom payment to terrorists and the proximity of the Sokoto State to foreign countries breeding terrorists is questionable.
According Abdullahi and John; “El-Rufai’s recent comments on bandits’ attacks in Kudan, Malumfashi and other new enclaves never associated with bandits’ attacks in both Kaduna, Katsina and other states are clearly set to flare up tensions across ethnic and religious divide in order to cause break down of law and order.
“A reality check on the nexus between the sad development and inflammatory commentaries are things that needed to be properly scrutinized”.
The coalition particularly queried the motive behind El-Rufai’s allegations that Christians in Kaduna State are less than 30 per cent of the entire population of the State.
It further said; “There is no other meaning to the cold blooded statement than a gaslighting tool calculated to set the both Christians and Muslims community against each other for anarchy to reign in the country to enable foreign terrorists capitalise on the infighting to achieve a dark agenda.
In the words of the coalition; “It was patently intended to give the foreign terrorists free reign advantage to overrun all of us while we are busy wastefully fighting each other”.
The coalition of CSOs also demanded that anti-corruption agencies should reopen the probe on the failed privatization of NITEL while El-Rufai held sway at the Bureau for Public Enterprises.
“We shall do everything possible to collaborate with the Interpol and European Union related law enforcement agencies to ensure that El-Rufai must give full account on the suspected fraudulent deals in that transaction.
“The case of unaccounted loans belonging to the people of Kaduna State is another case waiting for prompt investigation by the anti graft agencies in Nigeria.
“We urge the United States Government in particular and the International Community in general to specifically hold Nasiru El-Rufai over his past utterances regarding his unapologetic condemnation of the killing of Osama bin Laden, his ransom payment to foreign terrorists, ethics cleansing inflammatory commentaries and related violent utterances against accredited foreign election observers during the 2019 General Election in Nigeria.
“Our final take on the infamous and unfortunate statement contained in his recent Channels Television interview is that, he should be held accountable for his subversive utterances. He should have known better and we believe that he was well aware of the full import and implications of the contents of his perfidious allegation. He was the same El-Rufai that terrorised journalists and objective critics who expressed their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech.
“At over 65 years, he is not an infant whose atrocities of blackmail, treachery and high-handedness may be excused as rantings of a cantankerous amateur,” the coalition stressed.
