Kaduna Assembly Blasts Ex-Gov El-Rufai For Taunting Lawmakers As ‘Illiterates’

The Kaduna State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, blasted the immediate-past governor of the State, Nasir El-Rufai, over his recent comments against lawmakers on radio.

Reacting to El-Rufai’s comments, the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Hon. Henry Marah Zachariah, who spoke on behalf of the lawmakers, described El-Rufai as a noisemaker who was seeking political relevance.

Recall that El-rufai had on Monday on Freedom Radio alleged that ,embers of the Kaduna State House of Assembly were “stark illiterates” and did not have the capacity to probe his administration.

But, Hon. Zachariah said, “We wish to remind the former Governor that all the Honorable Members of the Assembly met constitutional requirement to contest and win their various elections as enshrined in Section 106 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended).”

He added that members of the Assembly possessed both legal, educational and moral qualifications and have dutifully discharged their constitutional responsibilities to carry out the investigation.

“All the findings of the Adhoc Committee against the former Governor and his administration are in the public domain and all his attempt to impugn the report in court failed and until the Committee’s report is successfully challenged in court, the former Governor remain indicted,” he stated.

The lawmakers, however, vowed to take legal actions against El-Rufai for calling them ‘stark illiterates’ .

“On the issue of defamation of character of the Members of the Assembly, alleging that they are stark illiterates, the Assembly will take appropriate legal action against the former Governor to protect their image and integrity and the Assembly as an Institution for the sake of posterity.

“On the removal of the former Executive Chairman of KADIRS of his appointment, the Rt. Hon. Speaker has no powers to hire or fire any appointed officer in the State,” he added.

The lawmakers reaffirmed their support for Governor Uba Sani and their Speaker, Yusuf Liman.

“We hereby reiterate the resolve of the entire members of the Kaduna State House of Assembly irrespective of party differences to support and work with Governor Uba Sani and the Rt Honourable Speaker to ensure the people of Kaduna State get the needed dividends of democracy,” the House spokesman stated.