GOVERNOR of Kaduna State, Nasir- El-Rufai, says he has lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, over inciting comments made by “a pastor in Abuja” suggesting that he (El-Rufai) has a hand in the kidnap and murder of traditional ruler in the state.
El-Rufai said this when the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, paid him a courtesy visit in Kaduna on Thursday.
He said the message by the pastor was what led to the recent violence in the Kasuwan Mageni area of Kaduna where 22 persons were killed.
“The story circulating was that I invited the chief to a meeting and told him that his chiefdom will become an emirate and he disagreed with me and when he was abducted, it was implied that I arranged the abduction. This is what started the crisis and it is totally false,” El-Rufai told Lai Mohammed.
“I have never invited any chief except when they write to see me. I can depose him (the traditional ruler). Why will I threaten him? I can abolish his chiefdom or emirate under the law.
“But this was the story circulating and it raised tension and many people were killed.
“There was a clip going round, a pastor in Abuja that said I was the one that arranged the abduction and murder of the Agom of Kachia. I have filed a complaint to the IG. We intend to bring him to Kaduna to try him.
“The clip was circulated in Kaduna and he is in Abuja, we will get him. We know the agents of this kind of careless statements and what is most unfortunate is that the guiltiest people are the people that we assume should be responsible, pastors, imams and very important people in the society.”
Though he did not mention the pastor’s name, El-Rufai was ostensibly referring to Paul Enenche, owner of Dunamis church, one of the biggest Pentecostal churches in Abuja, with branches across the country.
A video of one of Enenche’s preaching went viral on the social media, showing the pastor saying that the deceased traditional ruler was kidnapped on his way back from a meeting called by the governor.
In that video, Enenche said that according to the news reports he heard, some Christian chiefs in Kaduna State were told “that all their chiefdoms were to come under Emirates”, but the late chief said no.
“He was the most vocal, the most aggressive. He said no, we are Christians, we are ruled by our own first class chiefs. We don’t come under the rule and title of another religion,” Enenche narrated in the video.
“Then tension started, in his community — they called the place Kasuwa Mageni or so — they killed almost 200 people in one hour, by terrorist agents.
“Then the governor summoned him and others for some peace talk on how to resolve the issue. On his way back from the governor’s invitation, he was kidnapped. Is it not a wonder to find out who kidnapped him? His police orderly killed, four of his personal security killed.
“He was abducted with his wife, his wife was later released. A few days later his body was dropped on the Abuja – Kaduna highway. The first class chief of a people. It’s like pouring insult and excreta on the face of such a people. And anybody is going to ask ‘who was the one that killed such a person?'”
In the not-too-distant past, El-Rufai had arrested and later sued a reporter with Vanguard Newspaper, Luka Binniyat, as well as a popular entertainment businessman, Audu Maikori, owner of Chocolate City, for allegedly authoring and sharing fake news of a Fulani herdsmen attack in Kaduna State respectively.