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By Oscar Okhifo
Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is facing renewed criticism from former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, and human rights lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, who have urged Nigerians not to sympathize with him, insisting he must answer to allegations of human rights abuses and financial misconduct during his tenure.
“Before you feel sorry for Nasir El-Rufai, look at the attached photo very carefully. It is unedited,” Omokri wrote, accusing the former governor of presiding over grave human rights abuses between 2015 and 2023.
Referring to the 2015 Zaria incident involving members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Omokri alleged that “347 Shia Muslim men, women, children, and infants were massacred under Nasir El-Rufai,” adding that “the unofficial figure put the death toll at about a thousand.”
He further claimed that the group’s leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, was reduced “to such a barbaric and pathetic state.”
Omokri also revisited the 2019 disappearance of government critic, Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Dadiyata.
“Under Nasir El-Rufai, his critic, Abubakar Idris, was snatched from his house before Salatul Jumu’ah prayers on Friday, August 2, 2019, never to be seen again to this day. He is believed dead!” he said, adding that the activist’s wife and two daughters “have been living in trauma since his 2019 abduction under the El-Rufai despotic regime.”
He further alleged that El-Rufai “arrested multiple journalists and activists for covering him negatively,” listing Jacob Onjewu Dickson, Segun Onibiyo, Midat Joseph and Audu Maikori among those affected.
On Maikori, Omokri said: “Audu Maikori had to escape Nigeria for the United States, where I met him, interviewed him, and shuddered in terror at what Nasir El-Rufai did to him.”
He also accused the former governor of demolishing properties belonging to critics, including Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi and former APC National Vice Chairman (North West), Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir.
“To further disgrace Senator Hunkuyi, the house was demolished at 2 a.m.,” he alleged.
Omokri further quoted El-Rufai as saying, “Even if Pope is my running mate, Christians won’t vote for me,” describing the remark as evidence of divisive politics.
On alleged financial misconduct, he stated that El-Rufai “is fingered in the alleged theft of ₦423 billion during his tenure by no less a body than the Kaduna State House of Assembly,” stressing that “he is not above the law or above arrest.”
However, Omokri is not alone in urging Nigerians to resist emotional reactions.
Adeyanju also called on the public to “abeyance their emotions” and allow due process to take its course if the former governor is formally charged.
He reportedly reminded Nigerians that El-Rufai “was a law unto himself” both as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and during his two-term tenure as Kaduna State governor, maintaining that the proper venue to resolve allegations is the courtroom.
Rejecting claims that El-Rufai is being politically targeted, Omokri concluded:
“No, Nasir, you are not being persecuted. You are being prosecuted!”
As of press time, El-Rufai has not publicly responded to the latest remarks.