Ribadu, Shi’ites, Not CAN, Responsible For My Ministerial Rejection — El-Rufai

Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has alleged that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, and members of the Shi’ite movement, were responsible for the rejection of his ministerial nomination by the Senate in 2023, dismissing claims that Christian groups or Southern Kaduna stakeholders were behind the development.

El-Rufai made the allegation in a viral audio clip, which has gone viral on social media, in which he claimed that a petition was orchestrated at Ribadu’s instance to halt his confirmation by the National Assembly.

“Nuhu Ribadu and the Shi’ites group are the ones that sent a petition against me, not CAN and not Southern Kaduna people; they had nothing to do with it,” El-Rufai was heard saying in the recording.

He alleged that the petition was written in the office of a Kaduna-based lawyer on the directive of the National Security Adviser and forwarded to the National Assembly, requesting that his appointment be put on hold over unspecified security concerns.

“The petition was sent to the National Assembly that my appointment should be put on hold because of security issues even though till date those so-called issues have not been revealed,” El-Rufai said.

According to the embattled former governor chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the petition was initially sent to the State Security Service (SSS) with a request for an adverse report, but the agency declined, having already cleared him.

“He first sent the petition to SSS and asked them to write a report, but they resisted because they had already cleared me. That is the process before you get to the Senate, DSS has to clear you. I have occupied ministerial positions twice before; I know how it goes. When I went for the security clearance, the director of SSS told me I was cleared since they already had a file on me,” he said.

El-Rufai further alleged that the move to block his ministerial nomination was driven by “selfish motives,” adding that he had accepted the outcome.

As of the time of filing this report, NSA Ribadu and representatives of the Shi’ites group had not publicly responded to the allegations.