A FORMER governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has sued a member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Henry Marah, and Channels TV for alleged defamatory statements over the probe of N423 billion loan his administration purportedly took when he led the state.
The case was filed Thursday, July 11, at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
In the suit, El-Rufai’s lawyer, A.U. Mustapha (SAN) argued that an interview conducted on June 5 on Channels TV “Politics Today” titled “Investigation of El-Rufai Administration” was “malicious, unwarranted, without justification, defamatory and greatly injurious to the reputation of the claimant.”
El-Rufai sued Marah and Channels TV for N3 billion, jointly and individually, claiming that they caused him pain, humiliation and grief by publishing libellous, unjustified, and defamatory information that damaged his reputation and goodwill.
The interview was conducted in response to the ongoing investigation into El-Rufai’s purported N423 billion fund loan during his 2015–2023 tenure.
In the interview, Marah was cited as claiming that El-Rufai borrowed money without following the law and that the money was missing.
The ICIR reported that El-Rufai had sued the Kaduna State House of Assembly for N1 billion, alleging that he was not given a fair hearing by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Investigation of Loans, Financial Transactions, Contractual Liabilities and Other Related Matters, which was established by the Kaduna State House of Assembly on April 16, 2024, and which was tasked with looking into the loans between May 29, 2015, and May 29, 2023.
The Court has not fixed a date for the hearing of the case.
The Assembly accused El-Rufai’s eight-year administration of allegedly siphoning ₦432 billion, leaving the state with huge liabilities.
The former governor filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court in Kaduna against the Assembly on Wednesday, June 26.
The suit was filed by his lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a senior advocate.
El-Rufai in the lawsuit asked the court to declare the Assembly probe report void because he was not given a fair chance to address the accusations the committee made against him and his administration.
He asked the court to assert that by the provisions of Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Investigation of Loans, Financial Transactions, Contractual Liabilities and Other Related Matters of the Government of Kaduna State from 29 May 2015 to 29 May 2023, as ratified by the Kaduna State House of Assembly, was unconstitutional and therefore null and void for violating his right to fair hearing as guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Kaduna State House of Assembly, the State Attorney General, and the Commissioner of Justice were joined as respondents in the suit.
In March, Kaduna Governor Uba Sani blamed El-Rufai for the state’s debt and his government’s inability to pay salaries, despite helping to secure some of the loans that contributed to the alleged sleaze while representing the state at the Senate.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance