Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has alleged that the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, ordered the Directorate of the State Security, DSS, to arrest and hand him over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, for financial allegations that were yet to be made public.
El-Rufai cited a case of Ribadu, undemocratically, making a call to order his arrest shunning all necessary processes of arrest, which he termed unlawful and trample on his democratic right as a citizen of Nigeria.
El-Rufai added that the desire to apprehend him for investigations were further fueled by his comments against the President Bola Tinubu’s administration which the government considered could jeopadise the 2027 ambition.
In an interview with Arise TV on Friday, the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, claimed that the DSS men of up to 50, attempted his arrest without a warrant, and requested for his passport which he declined, but was later taken from one of his aid whom was beaten to a pulp, which he once again cited as a trample of the victim’s democratic rights.
The erstwhile state’s leader also disclosed that there were no communications between him and the DSS nor the ICPC, prior to the incident he termed an abduction, since there were no documentations for the incident.
On how he knew that it was Ribadu who ordered the arrest, El-Rufai said, ”It was a modus-operandi by Nuhu Ribadu. Nuhu made the call and ordered that I had to be arrested yesterday. We listen to the government’s calls. The government thinks they are the only ones who listen to calls, but we also have our ways to do that. Someone tapped his phone and told us that he made the order.
”The moment I landed in Abuja, a young man walked up to me and said I am from the DSS and we will like to meet with you in our office, and I said where is the letter of invitation, and he said my bosses have it, but I held on seeing the letter,” El-Rufai said.
”I told them I was heading to the Immigration and told them that I live very close to the DSS office and will appear as soon as I get the letter of invitation. As I tried to make move two of them blocked my way. I told him I can’t go with you.
”They also tried to get hold of my passport as well as attempting to force arrest me but I told them my passport is my property. One of my passport tried to take the passport off me thinking that it would be safer with him in such incident, but he was severely beaten and the document was taken from him.”
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, member stated that the situations can be likened to huge animosity against him by government agencies, but he remains committed towards contributing immensely to the party in the 2027 elections.
