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Tag: Nasir el-Rufai

  • Why SSS is after me, by El-Rufai

    Why SSS is after me, by El-Rufai

    •Ex-FCT minister at security agency’s office

    All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Secretary Nasir El-Rufai, has said State Security Services (SSS) operatives are after him because he sued them for unlawful detention in Awka, during last November’s Anambra State governorship election.

    The SSS invited the former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister to clarify his comment that there would be violence if the 2015 elections are rigged.

    Party officials and reporters stormed his home in Asokoro District of Abuja yesterday, at 8am, to see the loquacious politician.

    Clad in a white kaftan and a black cap, the former minister returned to his home at 8.17am.

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi drove into the premises.

    After El-Rufai addressed reporters at 8.50am, Amaechi drove him in a grey BMW Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with registration No. (Plateau) AH358LGT. On the passenger seat was Senator Chris Ngige.

    Other sympathisers and party faithful drove behind them to the SSS headquarters in Maitama.

    At the SSS headquarters, only El-Rufai, his wife, lawyer and Ameachi were allowed into the inner office. Curious reporters watched from the opposite end of the street.

    At 9.58am, SSS operatives ordered the reporters to leave the vicinity “in their interest”. Some left. Others waited.

    El-Rufai said his sin was that he demanded that elections be free and fair.

    According to him, his persecution by the SSS is all about the 2015 elections.

    The former minister said there was nothing wrong or new about his comment because the nation’s history is replete with post-election violence.

    Citing instances of post-election violence, the APC chieftain recalled that there were crises after the 1964, 1983, 1993 and 2011 elections.

    El-Rufai said the Federal Government planned to silence whoever opposes the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) plans to rig next year.

    The former minister stressed that he would speak out until elections are free and fair.

    He said: “I think it’s because I sued the SSS for detaining me unlawfully in Awka during the governorship poll. I think that is the main reason. Of course, I think they have found other reasons because there is nothing I said that history has not shown.

    “I said the election should be free and fair. If they are not free and fair, there is likely going to be violence. These are certain facts; at least four times in history – in 1964, 1983, 1993 and 2011. So, what is strange about that? Any person who doesn’t know these does not know history or he is just ignoring history.

    “This is all about 2015. This is just to intimidate and silence the opposition against crying out that the elections are likely to be rigged by the PDP. I will continue to speak and they can continue to arrest me until we get free and fair elections in Nigeria.”

    El-Rufai said he declined arrest at the weekend since the SSS had no warrant.

    The former minister explained that his lawyer, yesterday, notified him that security operatives were in possession of a warrant of arrest.

    According to him, the SSS has no power to force him into their office since the constitution empowers him to make a statement.

    Describing his invitation as an embarrassment, the former minister added that “embarrassment is part of life.”

    El-Rufai noted that whoever contravenes the law must face the consequences.

    “I believe the SSS has no power to compel me to go to their office because of the statement I have a right under the constitution to make.

    “Look, embarrassment is part of life. It does not matter; embarrassment is part of life. All I want to say is that whoever violates the law or does anything against the constitution should face the consequences. We will pursue our rights in court and in the court of public opinion.”

     

     

     

     

     

    Amaechi said the APC directed him to escort el-Rufai to the SSS office.

    Asked whether the persecution of the former minister was about next year’s elections, the governor said the PDP would not willingly cede power to the opposition.

    Ameachi explained that the ruling party would rather resort to fighting the opposition with intimidating institutions, including the SSS.

    On the political crisis in Rivers State, the governor said he was grateful to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for giving the people the freedom to hold rallies.

    He said the police chief had acknowledged the abnormality in the state and deployed an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) and a Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) in the state.

    Amaechi said all he wanted was for the parties to abide by the law.

    He said: “I am not involved. I am just directed by the party to escort Mallam el-Rufai to the place. But you know you don’t expect that the government or the PDP will willingly cede power. They will fight with all means. This is one of the institutions they will use to fight anybody who will take power from them.

    “We didn’t say things are getting to normal. We said for the first time, we should thank the Inspector-General of Police for allowing us the freedom to hold rallies without an abuse. We thank him for that; not the Commissioner of Police.

    “That’s because I heard there was an AIG and a DIG for them to send. That means it is abnormal. It means they have acknowledged that the Commissioner of Police is not good. For them to send the DIG and a DIG… the implication is that things are abnormal.

    “Unfortunately, I was not born to be intimidated. So, they better leave the intimidation and let’s do the right thing.”

    The governor left the SSS headquarters before noon while Ngige left at 1.50pm.

     

  • CNPP berates SSS for querying ex-FCT minister

    CNPP berates SSS for querying ex-FCT minister

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday condemned the State Security Service (SSS) for questioning former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasir el-Rufai.

    The CNPP described the action as bias and unfair.

    It added that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, had made similar statements, like many notable Nigerians, who had not been summoned.

    The CNPP urged the SSS to “restrain in making mountains out of mole hills and embarking on selective amnesia, which casts our security agencies in partisan colours”.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, the conference said: “The CNPP has read carefully the statement credited to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, in which he said there would be violence, if the 2015 elections are not credible, free and fair.

    “We are at a loss how this nimble conditional statement constitutes security threat and is rated weighty enough to attract the attention of the Directorate of State Service {DSS} to arrest him.

    “In our candid view, it smacks of selective justice and gives credence to the watch list, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo harped on in his letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We hope we are not sliding back to the dark days of dictatorship, when a watch list would drift into a hit list!

     

    “Otherwise, what is harmful in the speech, when it sounds like a rapid response to the explosive pessimistic statement made by the Chief Electoral Officer of the federation, Prof Attahiru Jega, few days earlier that the 2015 elections will not be perfect? It’s a speech couched as if the hurdles before INEC are insurmountable and, therefore, a good excuse to rig the elections. Then argue after the havoc that ‘I told you before’.

    “Or, can we easily forget the explosive statements by the former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, that stopping President Jonathan in 2015 will have grave consequences? Nor the ones by Alhaji Asari Dokubo and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, all President’s men?

    “Yet, we have no record that any of them has been hounded by the DSS.”

     

     

  • APC’s presidential permutations

    APC’s presidential permutations

    THE euphoria that greeted APC’s dramatic arrival on the Nigerian political scene and the extended honeymoon it enjoyed after its polygamous marriage have both come to a crushing end. Two reasons account for this. First, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party famous for its ad hoc form of governance and gluttonous craving for self-inflicted punishment, has embarked on a campaign of unrelenting calumny against the opposition party. Second, a few newspapers have started to adorn their front pages with sensational stories of the opposition party’s presidential permutations, after exhausting itself regaling the public with staid and routine party stories. For today, let us ignore the calumniating of the APC, lest this column be dismissed as a self-appointed advocate of the APC.

    Judging from the media hysteria over the APC’s permutations, especially the frenetic pace with which the party is reported to be juggling its very many presidential ticket options, it is unlikely the party itself would recognise its leaders were engaged in such fancy footwork. One day, say the newspapers, the party proposes to give the presidential ticket, sans primaries, to General Buhari, and the running mate ticket to Asiwaju Tinubu. Barely two days later, and totally ignoring what they reported earlier, the papers announce that the ticket is believed to be safe in the hands of Kano governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, and either Edo’s Adams Oshiomhole or Rivers’ Rotimi Amaechi as running mate.

    Not so, say other papers. Quoting ‘reliable’ APC sources, the papers suggest that the tickets have been shared to House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, and either Lagos governor, Fashola, or Amaechi. Former Kano governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, and former FCT minister, Nasir el-Rufai, are fall-back options, the papers announce satisfyingly. If they don’t run out of ‘credible sources,’ the papers will soon begin to name the dark horses they speculate the party may be considering. Yes, of course, no political reporting is complete in an election year without dark and crimson horses.

    Overall, going by newspaper reports, the APC is spoilt for choice. This contrasts with the dearth of aspirants in the PDP; for many hopefuls in that ageing and recriminative party have been smothered by the gargantuan ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan and his hawkish aides. If in doubt, ask the vacillating Jigawa governor, Sule Lamido. What seems to be happening, given the avalanche of newspaper reports, is nothing more than the ordinary speculations of analysts within the APC, passed on with poignant dubiety to careless ears.

    The PDP is luckier. If not Jonathan, the question is who else, for it is clear that Jonathan hopes to run, but failing that will probably determine who will succeed him. For the APC, no top leader (or credible source) will speculate carelessly about whom the party will give the ticket to. The reason is simple: the party is super anxious to win the presidency, and its potential candidates are either too strong to be ignored or two powerful to be denied the ticket without repercussions to the party’s fortunes. It is, therefore, unlikely the party leaders have actively considered who will take the ticket either democratically or through the backdoor, let alone officially permit the news to filter out to the newspapers.

  • Anambra Election: SSS detains el-Rufai

    Anambra Election: SSS detains el-Rufai

    Former FCT Minister, Mallam el-Rufai has been reportedly detained by the State Security Service (SSS) in his hotel room in Anambra State.

    The member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as at the time of writing this report, was  barred from free movement.

    El-Rufai via his twitter handle @el-rufai said: “The DG-SSS did not pick my call, yet to call back. I have complained to another senior officer. It is unlawful detention and will be resisted!

    “I intend to discharge my duties today no matter what, and will go out when ready. I will dare the SSS to shoot…..we wait and see…thanks.

    Further updates from his twitter handle revealed that his phone was also seized: “In the midst of a phone interview with AIT’s Obiora Ilo, the SSS forcefully and unlawfully seized the phone thus abruptly end the interview.”

  • Presidency attacks El-Rufai

    The Presidency has  described former FCT Minister and Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as “a double minded and unstable man in all his ways”.

    The Special Assistant (New Media) to the President, Mr Reno Omokri made this remark in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.

    He was reacting to an interview published in the Saturday Sun of September 14, 2013, in which el-Rufai had said that ‘Nothing can make Jonathan succeed.’

    El-rufai had said that the President “is grossly incompetent, he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t even understand the issues”.

    The Presidential aide urged the public not to be misled by the machinations of el-Rufai, “a man who is in dire need of prayers and perhaps psychological assistance”.

    Omokri recalled that contrary to his position in the interview, El-Rufai had at a meeting with Ambassador John Campbell in April of 2007 said that Jonathan, the then Vice Presidential nominee of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, “is clean and honest”.

    He said  El-Rufai had told the ambassador that “Jonathan was the only candidate that met Obasanjo’s guidelines- honesty and Ijaw”.

    According to him, unknown to El-Rufai, the ambassador kept a record of their conversation which is now a public record in America.

    He said: “Beyond that, Nasir El-Rufai, who had gone into voluntary exile under the presidency of Malam Umaru Musa Yar’adua
    after he was accused of corruption and abuse of office while he was minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, felt safe enough to return to Nigeria as soon as President Jonathan ascended to power.”

    Omokri recalled that when  El-Rufai returned to Nigeria, in 2010, he visited President Jonathan at Presidential Villa on May 11, 2010, and was the first major political figure to call on him to contest for the 2011 presidential election.

    Omokri said that in the double speak nature of El-rufai he showered encomiums on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the latest interview contrary to a damning conclusion on the General in 2010.

    “I think that where Nigeria is today, only someone like Buhari, with the experience of having run the country before, and having run it along certain principles of discipline, integrity and accountability, that Nigeria needs”.

    Omokri recalled that the same El-Rufai had however, in October 6, 2010, said Buhari was not a suitable person to rule the country.

    “Mallam El-Rufai wishes to remind General Buhari that he has remained perpetually unelectable because his record as military head of state, and afterwards, is a warning that many Nigerians have wisely heeded.

    “His insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known.

    “In 1984, Buhari allowed 53 suitcases belonging to his ADC’s father to enter Nigeria unchecked at a time the country was exchanging old currency for new.

    “Against all canons of legal decency, he used retroactive laws to execute three young men for drug-peddling after they were convicted by a military tribunal and not regular courts of law.

    “Buhari was so high handed that he gave himself and his officials immunity even from truthful reporting.

    “That obnoxious Decree 4, against which truth was no defence, was used to jail journalists and attempt to cow the media as a whole.

    “That tyrannical legislation shows the essence of his intolerance. These are facts of recent history.

    “The story of counter-trade and import licensing, the cornerstone of Buhari’s stone-age economic strategy and those whose interests it served, is a tale for another day.”

  • Jonathan above ethnic, religious politics, says Presidency

    The Presidency on Sunday  maintained that President Goodluck Jonathan is above ethnic and religious politics.

    It was reacting to  comments by the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in a radio interview on Saturday accusing President Jonathan of playing ethnic and religious politics.

    A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati pointed out that no past leader has spent more than President Jonathan on education specifically tailored for Islamic itinerant scholars known as the Almajiri.

    He also said that Jonathan has appointed Muslims into sensitive positions and ensured a balance that has been commended by many in the Islamic fold.

    The statement reads: “My attention has been drawn to comments made by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and now chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, published in several newspapers where he made wild allegations against the person of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

    “This most recent interview, like others he gave in the past only shows that El-Rufai is a serial liar and the facts of history bear me witness. El-Rufai accused President Goodluck Jonathan of playing ethnic and religious politics, however, any objective watcher of the President knows that this is untrue.”

    “For instance, the Muslim Ummah just emerged from the Ramadan fast and the President, though a Christian, joined them in fasting and severally broke the fast with Muslims at the Presidential Villa.”

    “Also, in the history of the existence of Nigeria as a nation, no leader has spent the quantum of funds that President Jonathan has spent on education specifically tailored for Islamic itinerant scholars known as the almajiri.”

    “In the composition of his cabinet, the President has appointed Muslims into sensitive positions and ensured a balance that has been commended by many in the Islamic fold.”

    “But it is most curious that this allegation is coming from Nasir El-Rufai, a man who profaned the name of Jesus Christ on Twitter by tweeting a joke which is too indecent to mention in the presence of civilized persons. This same El-Rufai is the same man who in June of last year claimed that Christians were behind the bombings of their own churches rather than terrorists and were doing this to further a Christian agenda.”

    The statement continued: “It is only a measure of his inconsistency that El-Rufai is today accusing the Presidency of being afraid of General Muhammadu Buhari whom the same El-Rufai said was “perpetually unelectable”.

    “In fact, the accusation El-Rufai is now making against the President is precisely the same accusation he made against General Muhammadu Buhari on October 4 2010 when he said Buhari’s “insensitivity to Nigeria’s diversity and his parochial focus are already well-known”.

    “Today, El-Rufai is serving this same Buhari. That El-Rufai is not above lying to the media to achieve his political objective was proven in Segun Adeniyi’s book, ‘Power, Politics and Death’ when El-Rufai was quoted to have confessed in the presence of multiple witnesses who are still alive today that “There was no cabal, we created the myth to neutralise Turai”. El-Rufai sold Nigerians the dummy of a Turai cabal which was a lie used to further his own political ends.”

    “In any case, we have a record of what El-Rufai truly thinks of President Jonathan from the leaked secret diplomatic memo from the U.S. embassy in Abuja which revealed that just before the April 2007 Presidential election El-Rufai had told the then U.S. ambassador to Nigeria that the then Vice Presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was “clean and honest”.

    “Mallam El-Rufai’s comment on the Vice President is also unfortunate.  The report quoted him as describing the administration of Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo in Kaduna state as a disaster, purporting that the vice president as a former governor of Kaduna state incurred a huge debt profile that compelled his successor to complain. At no time did the late Governor Yakowa ever accuse the Vice President of incurring any huge debt during his tenure as Governor of Kaduna State.”

    “For the records, when the Vice President was in charge as Governor of Kaduna state, the state never borrowed a penny from any quarters. The efforts to generate cheap funds for development, which he applied for were just recently approved by the Islamic Development Bank for the state.”

    “It is on record also that the Vice President made judicious use of the state’s resources in reviving the already comatose railway sector, construction of a 150-million litres per day Zaria water treatment plant, the construction of a 300-bed specialist hospital and 5,000 kg grain silos  for each of the three senatorial districts, the building of a games centre at the Murtala Mohammed Square and the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna; the construction of a brand new Governor’s office at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim  House; the establishment of a mobile and effective security outfit codenamed Operation Yaki and the deployment of 27% of the State’s budget to education amongst other achievements.”

    “Since El-Rufai has a history of saying the truth privately and the lie publicly it suffices to warn his current fellow co-travelers that a man who can betray those who brought him up in politics is capable of anything. Nigerians should consequently take his words with not just a pinch of salt, but a spoonful because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

    “We are not the least surprised with such vituperations from Nasir El-Rufai. His public record of treachery and slander is still very fresh in the minds of Nigerians. His verbal assault on his original benefactors for worldly gain, his record of double standards and his treatment of the late Justice Bashir Sambo speak volumes of his character.        The false accounts he rendered in his recent collection of half-truths and outright lies which he accidentally titled: The Accidental Public Servant further define his public image as an ungrateful, self-serving and loquacious personality.” It stated

  • el-Rufai deserves prayer not anger- Atiku

    el-Rufai deserves prayer not anger- Atiku

    The Media office of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has accused Former Federal Capital Territory  Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai of writing alleged fiction for self-glorification at the expense of truth.

     Reacting to el-Rufai’s book entitled, “The Accidental Public Servant,” Atiku’s Media office  dismissed el-Rufai’s  book as a collection of fiction, half-truths, exaggeration and reflection of selective memory.

     The Media Office in a statement said it was particularly piqued by  el-Rufai’s claim that he  almost resigned as the former Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) because of alleged persistent pressure and interference by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was then the Chairman of the National Council on Privatization.

     Atiku’s Media Office expressed disbelief that the former FCT Minister forgot soon what he said at the Senate Public Hearing on BPE August 8-13, 2011. That Adhoc committee was headed by Senator Ahmed Lawan.

     It recalled el-Rufai as saying that he had special relationship with former President Obasanjo, which gave him direct access and the discretion to bypass the Council on Privatization headed by Atiku in order to get the approval of the President.

     The Media Office wondered how el-Rufai could reconcile his threat of resignation with the accounts he told the Senate about the latitude of freedom he enjoyed at BPE because of his closeness to former President Obasanjo.

     In the testimony, el-Rufai was quoted as telling the the Senate : “Thank you very much Distinguished Senator. Mr. Chairman, as a matter of principle Mr. Chairman, I am reluctant to judge my successors.  So, whenever I do a job, I move on; I don’t comment on what my successors have done. All I can say is this. Mr. Chairman, if you go through my tenure in BPE, you will see that we try to do everything by the rules, by the book. And we resisted every attempt at political interference. There is a process; step by step. Privatization is a mechanical process. Once you have the process published, every step should not be missed. And there was never a time that we deviated from that process.

    “We took everything we did to the privatization council. That’s how we ran the place. And I swear to God, I am under oath. Except for one time that the vice president called me and said; look I’ve got calls from A and B to help this guy win this, I said Mr. Vice president you know the rules, tell him to bid the highest price because the highest price wins and he said yes I know, I am just telling you in case they contact you.  And I don’t want them to say I didn’t pass on their requests. That was the only time. But no one tried to interfere with my work. There were attempts to block it. President Obasanjo blocked the privatization of Nigeria airways practically. Okay because Kema Chikwe will go and tell him stories. And what is the result today. The company is dead.”

     On the claim by el-Rufai that former President Obasanjo went on bended knees before former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to seek his cooperation for second term bid in 2003, the media office dismissed the claim as a figment of el-Rufai’s wild imagination.

     It said such claim lacked any credibility because Atiku and Obasanjo were alone together behind closed doors and that they alone knew what actually transpired between them.

     The Media Office wondered whether el-Rufai was a fly on the wall to discuss the details of a private meeting between the two leaders.

     Rather than el-Rufai feeding the public with such fabrications, the statement said the former Minister should have provided or quoted the authority for such claim since he was not at the private meeting between former President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

     The statement also added that for a man like el-Rufai who has a notorious reputation for disparaging religions and their icons, including lately Jesus Christ, the attack on Atiku was the  least surprising.

     It noted that if he could go to such irreverent extent to disparage religious icons, who is an ordinary mortal like Atiku Abubakar.

     According to the statement, any man that can cross the boundary of reason and decency, deserves prayers rather than anger.