Datti Baba-Ahmed Demands El-Rufai Face Legal Probe Over Bandit Payment Claims, Links Insecurity to Jonathan’s Removal
The 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has urged that former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai be legally questioned following his controversial allegation that the Federal Government is funding and feeding bandits.
PulseNets learnt that Baba-Ahmed made the call on Wednesday while speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today. He insisted that the allegation was far too grave to be ignored, stressing that the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) should have acted decisively.
According to him, “If the so-called office of the National Security Adviser would take this statement with levity, then Nuhu Ribadu was never a policeman. He is not a qualified lawyer. He should not be in that office.” Baba-Ahmed dismissed the rebuttal issued by the NSA, insisting El-Rufai’s words deserved immediate investigation.
When asked what steps he would have personally taken, he told PulseNets that “Nasir should be writing some statements to the police and to the courts.”
It will be recalled that El-Rufai, while also appearing on Channels Television last Sunday, accused the current administration of running what he termed a “kiss-the-bandits policy.” The former governor alleged that monthly stipends and food supplies were being handed to criminal groups under the guise of a non-kinetic security approach.
In his words, “What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance, or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It’s nonsense. We are empowering bandits.”
The claim sparked immediate pushback from the NSA’s office. In a statement issued Monday by Zakari Mijinyawa, ONSA described El-Rufai’s allegations as “false and baseless.” The office maintained that the Federal Government has never paid ransoms or provided incentives to criminal groups, warning Nigerians against such practices.
Baba-Ahmed Blames Insecurity on Jonathan’s Removal
In a related development, the Labour Party stalwart also tied Nigeria’s worsening insecurity to what he described as the desperate campaign to oust former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
Speaking during a separate interview obtained by PulseNets on Tuesday, Baba-Ahmed recalled his own political history and the role played by opposition forces.
He explained, “I contested with the late former president Muhammadu Buhari in 2011. But ever since he made a security threat comment, I refused to go out with him.”
Continuing, he said, “It didn’t matter if I lost the Senate seat, but I eventually won it. Buhari had said you will all be soaked in blood. Kaduna is my state, and there was serious violence there. Many houses were burnt.”
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Baba-Ahmed told PulseNets that mercenaries were even brought in from neighbouring countries in preparation to remove Jonathan from power.
In his words, “The desperation of people to get Jonathan out of power has built up and added to what we call insecurity in Nigeria today.”
