The Vice-Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Dr. Yusuff Datti Baba-Ahmed says the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El’Rufai should be answering questions from the security agencies over his comment that the Federal and Kaduna State Governments had been empowering bandits by paying them monthly stipends and supplying them food.
El’Rufai made the allegation in an interview on Channels Television programme, Sunday Politicson Sunday night.
Newsmata.com.ng reports that during the interview, he accused the Federal Government of adopting what he described as a misguided “kiss-the-bandits” approach to insecurity as State policy rather than eliminating them, declaring that “non-kinetic is nonsense”.
However, reacting to the statement, Senator Baba-Ahmed, expressed dissatisfaction with the response from the office of the National Security Adviser, declaring that he did not deserve to be in office if he chose to treat the matter with levity.
He alleged that insecurity had not only been the ruling All Progressives Congress’s (APC) way of getting power, but also of staying in power.
According to Baba-Ahmed, “That statement is at the core of Nigeria having a government. Do we really have a government? If somebody who sold Nigeria’s assets for four years at BPE, served as FCT Minister for four years and served as Governor will say that there’s a national policy of paying bandits, do we have a government? Am I a citizen? Are you a citizen?
“Does Nigeria exist? …What are we doing? Are people understanding the gravity of this statement? Do we have an office of a national security adviser? A national policy is official position of government. An official declaration that this is what we shall be constitutionally doing. What we shall be legally pursuing. That’s what we call a national policy. It is made public. It is celebrated. It is broadcast to the whole world. Was such a thing held?
“Why did Nasiru say it? If the so-called office of the National Security Adviser will take this statement with levity, then Nuhu Ribadu was never a policeman. He is not a qualified lawyer. He should not be in that office”.
Dismissing the official reaction by the NSA’s office, Baba-Ahmed retorted, “That is not a reaction”, adding that if he were to be the NSA, “Nasiru (El’Rufai) should be writing some comments by now, some statements to the police, to the to the courts. If the position of Nigeria, the so-called APC government of Uncle Tinubu, if their official position is to be compensating bandits, paying bandits, then, we don’t have a nation”.
He said with the kind of response from the NSA, “then, it is true. And I tend to agree that it could be true”.
To buttress his position, the Labour Party chieftain cited earlier allegations by some politically exposed persons, including APC members.
“Before this one, another almost eight-year Governor of Borno State said that there are informants of terrorists in the Nigerian military and among Nigerian politicians, and it is official. You have the evidence.
“Before then, there was another politician who again said that bandits and terrorists were brought into Nigeria pre-2015 election. These are even small ones. Do you remember, now, what I’m about to say, and my arguments are that insecurity is part of APC. Insecurity has been APC’s way of getting power.
“Insecurity has been part of APC’s way of staying in power. That is my candid, firm opinion that is being further strengthened by the kind of unfortunate comments like that of Nasiru two days ago”.
Asserting that the former Kaduna governor cannot extricate himself from the insecurity in the North, Baba-Ahmed said, “My grudge with Nasiru’s statement is that he was part and parcel of the APC from 2013. Like he told you, he was one of the architects of it all.
“All of a sudden, to come and absolve himself and call others, no. Nasiru is part and parcel of all that has been going on. We suffered; we are victims of Nasiru’s misrule in Zaria.
“I am in so much pain, believe me. Nigeria should be a great country, yet we have people destroying us by the hour. Insecurity has been part of APC’s game, and Nasiru is saying it”.