The petition follows an extension of travel restrictions placed on politicians complicit in voter fraud recently announced by the US Government.
No less than ten thousand Nigerians have signed a petition on change.com in less than 24 hours, asking the United Kingdom, European Parliament and European Union to place a travel ban on Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, over the killings of Christians in Southern Kaduna and other gross rights violations under his watch.
The petition follows an extension of travel restrictions placed on politicians complicit in voter fraud recently announced by the US Government.
El-Rufai recently attracted national outrage after he was invited to speak at the National Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association despite his track record of rights violations, inflammatory comments and disregard for court orders.
He was eventually disinvited after a petition by lawyers garnered thousands of signatures.
The organiser of the petition, Reno Omokri, said el-Rufai’s precedence of indifference towards the killing of Christians under his watch, his comment that international election observers would leave in body bags and his son, Bello's threat to gang-rape a Twitter user's mother are all reasons to deny him travel access to democratic countries around the world.
The petition reads, “Nasir el-Rufai is a threat to the peace and security of Nigeria for many reasons chief of which are that: On December 3, 2016, he admitted that he paid killer herdsmen who killed Nigerian citizens because they were of the same ethnicity as him. Since that admission, there has been an intense escalation of the killings of mostly Christians in Kaduna, and on August 25, 2020, suspected herdsmen abducted seven schoolchildren and their teacher from Prince Academy, in Kaduna. They have not been seen or heard of since then.
“On September 8, 2014, Nasir el-Rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.
On January 27, 2013, he insulted the Lord Jesus Christ on Twitter.
“On February 6, 2019, he threatened foreign observers, including observers from the EU and UK with death, warning that they would return in “body bags”, should they intervene in Nigeria.
“On July 15, 2012, Nasir el-Rufai said, and I quote “We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes.” This threat has been carried out in Southern Kaduna where there is an ongoing genocide of Christians under el-Rufai’s watch.
“On August 23, 2019, he charged the Anglican Bishop of Zaria province of Kaduna, Abiodun Ogunyemi, for defamation.
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“Nasir el-Rufai circulated an email referring to Southern Nigerian women as whores.
On April 13, 2020, proving that the Apple does not fall far from the tree, his son, Bello el-Rufai threatened to gang rape the mother of a Southern Christian woman, proving that the idea that Southern women are “whores” is well established in the el-Rufai household.
“On April 24, 2019, another of his sons, Bashir el-Rufai, described the pogrom against Igbos as “sweet”.
"It is for this reason that Nigerian citizens call on the government of the United Kingdom and the European Union Presidency to follow the lead of the United States and place a visa ban on Nasir el-Rufai, who is scheming to become Nigeria’s President, to prevent a Rwandan style genocide in Nigeria.”