THE family of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has given the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, seven days to provide evidence for his allegation that the former governor deliberately planned killings in Southern Kaduna or publicly retract the statement and apologise.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by Mohammed Bello El-Rufai, the former governor’s eldest son, the El-Rufai family described Musa’s allegation as grave and said it had been made without evidence.
““In the absence of such evidence, we call on him to publicly retract the allegation through the same medium on which it was made. Accordingly, General Musa (Rtd.) is hereby given seven (7) days from the date of this statement to either provide evidence in support of his allegation or issue a full public retraction and apology,” the family said.
The ultimatum followed comments by Musa during a September 3 appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he accused El-Rufai of policies and actions that, in his view, deepened divisions and contributed to insecurity in Kaduna State during his administration from 2015 to 2023.
Musa described the situation in Kaduna under El-Rufai as toxic and alleged that the former governor had divided the state to such an extent that people from Southern Kaduna could not freely live in northern parts of the state and vice versa.
Asked whether people in Southern Kaduna remained unhappy with El-Rufai, Musa said the word unhappy did not adequately describe their feelings.
“We can never be happy with somebody who deliberately planned for the killing of our people,” he said.
The minister further referred to El-Rufai’s public statements and actions during his tenure as evidence of what he described as the former governor’s approach to security and governance.
El-Rufai’s family in its statement said it was not challenging Musa’s right to express his opinion but insisted that an allegation that a former governor deliberately planned killings required credible evidence.
The family demanded that the minister either substantiate the allegation or retract it publicly through the same medium on which he made it.
“This grave allegation was made without the presentation of any evidence in support of the claim. While General Musa (Rtd.) is entitled to hold and express his personal opinions, the El-Rufai family is equally entitled to demand that such serious allegations be substantiated with credible evidence,” it added.
The family gave Musa seven days from the date of its statement to comply, warning that failure to do so would leave it with no option but to pursue legal remedies.
“Failure to do so will leave the family with no option but to pursue all appropriate legal remedies available under the law in response to these unsubstantiated allegations,” it stated.
The demand represents an escalation of an already politically sensitive dispute over responsibility for the insecurity and communal violence that affected Kaduna during El-Rufai’s eight-year tenure.
Southern Kaduna had experienced recurring communal and intercommunal violence that involved overlapping ethnic, religious, and criminal dimensions before El-Rufai became governor in May 2015 but persisted, and in some areas intensified, during his tenure.
His tenure witnessed large-scale killings, abductions for ransom and other crimes.
An ICIR investigation documented a series of deadly attacks in Southern Kaduna, showing that between June 10 and August 21, 2020, 136 residents were killed in attacks on communities in the area.
The investigation also examined allegations that authorities and security agencies had intelligence that could have helped prevent some attacks.
The ICIR data-based assessments also show that more than 3,600 people were killed in armed violence in Kaduna between 2015 and 2022, as 1,432 people were killed between May 2015 and the end of 2019 alone, highlighting the scale of the violence during the former governor’s tenure.
According to a Kaduna State security report presented in February 2022, 1,192 people were killed in the state in 2021 from banditry and other forms of violence, while 3,348 people were kidnapped.
El-Rufai’s administration repeatedly acknowledged the severity of the crisis. In remarks accompanying Kaduna’s 2022 annual security report and first-quarter 2023 report, the former governor acknowledged continuing terrorism, banditry, killings and kidnappings, while arguing that the state government had taken institutional measures and repeatedly pressed the Federal Government for sustained military operations against armed groups.
In December 2016, while serving as governor, he said security reports indicated that some armed Fulani herders involved in attacks had entered Nigeria from neighbouring West African countries, including Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. His administration also pursued security and peace-building measures in response to the violence.
The former governor’s administration subsequently published annual security reports detailing killings, kidnappings and other crimes across the state.
The former governor is.currently in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC) over money laundering and other charges.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.