An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Farouk Aliyu, has advised the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, not to be drawn into the exchanges between a former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and Labour Party’s 2023 vice presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over the handling of insecurity in the country.
“Let me use this opportunity to beg my brother, Nuhu Ribadu, he should not join issues with Nasiru El-Rufai or Datti Baba-Ahmed. No.
“He is beyond that; he shouldn’t talk. Let him allow other people to take it up, because they are talking politics,” Aliyu said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today show.
The former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives acknowledged that insecurity remains a national challenge but cautioned against politicising the matter.
“The same El-Rufai came to talk politics, talking about insecurity. It’s true there are insecurity challenges in this country, and this government is doing something, yes. How can you be in government and allow your government to be destabilised?” he added.
READ ALSO: Alleged Payment Of Bandits: El-Rufai Part Of APC From Inception, ‘Cannot Run Away’ — Baba-Ahmed
Aliyu criticised El-Rufai’s past rhetoric of “killing them all,” insisting such statements were neither practical nor effective.
“He was governor for eight years. Tell me, between when El-Rufai was governor of Kaduna and now, these two years, what is better in terms of insecurity? The way he wanted everyone to be killed didn’t work. Sadly, the government of the day does not negotiate with terrorists.”
Insecurity: Baba-Ahmed Blames El-Rufai, APC
Appearing on the same programme, Datti Baba-Ahmed faulted El-Rufai’s recent claim that the government was paying bandits, arguing that the former governor cannot absolve himself of responsibility.
“El-Rufai cannot run away because he is part of it. My grudge with Nasiru’s statement is that he was part and parcel of the APC from 2013. Like he told you, he was one of the architects of it all.
“All of a sudden, [he wants] to come and absolve himself, no. Nasiru is part and parcel of all that has been going on. We suffered; we are victims of Nasiru’s misrule in Zaria,” Baba-Ahmed alleged.
The Kaduna-born politician challenged the NSA to take El-Rufai’s statement seriously.
“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 stated, adding that El-Rufai should be “writing some statements to the police, to the courts.”
El-Rufai’s Allegation Against FG, Kaduna Govt
The controversy began when El-Rufai, during an interview on Sunday Politics, alleged that both the Federal and Kaduna State governments were “empowering bandits” by paying them allowances and sending food in the name of non-kinetic measures.
“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’re empowering bandits,” the former FCT minister said.
He maintained that his position remained unchanged, “The only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kill them all. Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing, and then the five per cent that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated.”
FG, Kaduna Govts Dismiss Claim
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has dismissed El-Rufai’s claims, describing them as baseless.
In a statement signed by Zakari Mijinyawa for the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), it stressed that “at no time has the ONSA, or any arm of government under this administration, engaged in ransom payments or inducements to criminals”.
Similarly, the Chief of Defence Operations, Major General Emeka Onumajuru, reiterated that the military does not support paying bandits.
Instead, he pointed to the existing Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme under Operation Safe Corridor.
Equally, the Kaduna State Government condemned El-Rufai’s comments, branding them “calculated, malicious lies designed to undermine security efforts, incite public anger, and legitimise criminality.”
Its Commissioner for Internal Security, Suleiman Shuaibu, warned that Kaduna State would not tolerate attempts to destabilise peace.
However, in a post on his social media handles, El-Rufai insisted that security agencies were complicit in “greasing the palms” of criminal groups and accused the ONSA of politicising national security.
“It is a well-known fact to discerning Nigerians that the face of the politicisation of national security for politically intended purposes resides, for the first time in our recent history, in the ONSA under its present leadership,” he wrote.
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