The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has said that Kaduna state under Mallam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai, for eight years was Nigeria’s headquarters of kidnappings and human barbarities that led to the murder of tens of thousands of people and decimation of over 100 communities.
The MBF said this is what he (el-Rufai) never told the select group of Islamic clerics he had a meeting with after the conclusion of the highly disputed presidential and governorship polls.
Recall that in a meeting with Islamic clerics that was conducted on the eve of his departure as Kaduna State Governor, el-Rufai told the preachers on how he, with others, plotted to enthrone the same-faith ticket in the state that was later successfully replicated at the Federal level.
Independent reports that MBF, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Isuwa Dogo, said, “what he never told his selected preachers was that the state he ruled and ruined for eight years was turned into Nigeria’s headquarters of kidnappings and human barbarities that led to the murder of tens of thousands of people and decimation of over 100 communities under his watch.”
In the meeting with the clerics, the former Kaduna state governor was determined to ensure the Muslim-Muslim ticket was sustained for another 20 years to ensure Christians come to terms with the indispensability of the same-faith ticket as a panacea for peace in both the State and the Federal level.
“The MBF, as the socio-cultural organisation for ethnic nationalities that are mostly Christians of the Middle Belt Region, is outraged by the deceitful attempts by el-Rufai and his nebulous co-travellers to push our nation down the slippery slope of religious tension and bigotry.
“The outrage over the el-Rufai video clip demonstrates the level of disappointment by Nigerians over the former governor’s outburst that was aimed at inflaming religious conflagration in order to destabilise the Nigerian State.
The Forum said that the unfortunate comments portray el-Rufai, as a divisive leader who must be barred from the corridor of power.
Noting that the the video clip of the meeting has exposed him, the MBF also said that his eight years in power as governor, was characterised with massive killings and decimation of Christian-dominated areas of Southern Kaduna.
“Nigerians are now aware that despite denials of the Islamisation agenda, el-Rufai has come out to declare in broad daylight the reasons behind the same-faith ticket; thereby driving the imperatives for citizens to wake up to this orchestrated stratagem of enthroning the dominance of one religion over the other,” the group said.
MBF called on the Nigerian security agencies not only to place the former governor under its radar, but he should be invited by the secret police for a chat, considering the comments he made before the clerics.
“We hereby denounce el-Rufai’s comments before the clerics as a shameless act of national hypocrisy steeped in the premeditated plot to set adherents of both religions on war path,” the MBF said.
