Lack Of Transparency: Senator Sani Adviser Blasts Governor El-Rufai Over Drainage Contracts Scam
Comrade Suleiman Ahmed, an adviser Senator Shehu Sani on politics and ideology, has expressed support for SaharaReporters’ June 20 report which revealed that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State runs a corrupt government devoid of transparency.
The senatorial adviser said in a statement that journalists in the state are being blackmailed, arrested, [pocketed] or threatened with arrest, and could not, therefore, have written such a story as this website’s.
“Elrufai jails journalists like Pinochet or Stalin,” he said, adding that the governor has a mouth for criticism but not the stomach for it.
“In his two years in office he has jailed not less than 7 Journalists in Kaduna of which many are in court,” he said. “Kaduna state is run like a personal family and friends estate without any meaningful physical achievement other than sponsored media propaganda.”
Comrade Suleiman, whose principal, Shehu Sani, is a political rival of the governor’s, said there was nothing progressive about many people who claim to be “Buharists”, apparently referring to El-Rufai, adding that they are reactionaries and career opportunists who can fit into any Government in power.
He called on the governor to “suspend his Presidential or 'Vice Presidential' ambitions and concentrate in proper governance of the state.”
Text of the statement: PRESS STATEMENT ON ALLEGATION OF CORRUPTION AND NEPOTISM IN KADUNA STATE UNDER ELRUFAI.
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1-Sahara reporters report about systemic nepotism, opacity and complete absence of transparency in the Governance of Kaduna state is factual and the reality of the situation in Kaduna state.
2.Journalists in Kaduna state are under siege; blackmailed, arrested, pocketed or threatened with arrest and as such could not have written such a story. Elrufai jails journalists like Pinochet or Stalin. Elrufai is a man with a mouth for criticism but without a stomach for criticism. In his two years in office, he has jailed not less than 7 Journalists in Kaduna of which many are in court.
3.Kaduna state is run like a personal family and friends estate without any meaningful physical achievement other than sponsored media propaganda.
4.Elrufai has no money to pay traditional rulers he recently sacked but has money to dispense as contracts to family, friends and political cronies. Elrufai has enough money to pay Herdsmen but no money to pay district heads. Kaduna is today littered with abandoned drainages to the point that the rainy season has turned Kaduna into a 'coastal state with creeks'. He is auctioning over two thousand Government houses he inherited but he is yet to build a hut.
5.The Kaduna state Governor who in his memo accused PMB of running a failed government has failed also woefully. He thinks PMB failed but he never invited PMB to even commission a completed toilet in his state. Under Elrufai, Kaduna has become a hub of kidnappers and a sanctuary for Herdsmen.
6.The very Governor who once condemned the National Assembly for lack of transparency has proven to be worse.
7.Elrufai wants to be seen as an apostle of Buhari's change but he is actually the Judas of change.
8.Its hypocritical to promise Nigerians change and end up only 'putting change in our pockets'.
9.Theres nothing progressive about many people who claim to be Buharists; they are reactionaries and career opportunists who can fit in to any Government in power.
10.I call on Elrufai to suspend his Presidential or 'Vice Presidential' ambitions and concentrate in proper governance of the state.
Comrade Suleiman Ahmed
Adviser to the Distinguished Senator Shehu Sani on politics and ideology.
