26th June, 2024
By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Ex- Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Wednesday sued the Kaduna House Assembly over claims that he siphoned 432bn from the coffers of the state when he was governor between 2015 and 2023.
In the fudamenatal rights suit filed at Federal High Court in Kaduna against state House of Assembly on Wednesday by his lawyer Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, El-Rufai challenged the report of the Kaduna Assembly Committee in which he was indicted him for alleged corruption.
El-Rufai, in the suit, asked the court to declare the report of the Assembly probe as null and void because he was not given the opportunity of fair hearing over the allegations levelled against him and his administration by the committee.
Joined in the suit as respondents are the Kaduna State House of Assembly and state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice.
Kaduna Assembly had set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate all the finances, loans and contracts awarded under Nasir El-Rufai
In its report recently submitted to the House, the Chairman of the committee,Mr Magaji Danjuma, stated that the committee discovered evidence of several cases of alleged corruption in the running of the state from May 2015 to May 2023.
He said that the committee had also discovered some alleged improper awards of contracts without due process with some loans collected without the approval of the state assembly.
While reading the report summary , the Speaker, Dahiru Liman, said that the El-Rufai administration had a total income of N1.49 trillion in the years under review, adding that some of these monies were allegedly misappropriated.
He added that the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Kaduna State Inland Revenue Service (KADIRS) reportedly withdrew the sum of N 721.67 million through the use of ‘unauthorized debit card by a third party’.
Lima n explained that another N30 billion was siphoned from the state’s internally generated revenue by the ministry of finance with some officials of KADIRS, following other questionable transactions found by the committee.
The speaker explained that the then administration awarded a contract worth N 510.47 billion and left behind contractor’s, public and consultants’ liabilities.
Therefore, the committee recommended that the Kaduna Internal Revenue Service to withdraw the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Account domiciled at Zenith Bank as Security for N20 billion guaranteed in 2023 forthwith.
” And to request the bank to refund all monies deducted on account of the purported illegal guarantee together with the accrued interest thereof.
” That, all the Commissioners of Finance of the State from May 29, 2015 to May 29, 2023 be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for thorough investigation”,he said.
The committee also recommended that
all the Accountant Generals of the State that served during the years be referred to the appropriate law enforcement Agencies for investigation including KADIRS chairmen.
Others to be referred to the law enforcement agencies include Ms. Dolapo Popoola, the immediate past Managing Director of AlL KAPSCO and Mr Muyiwa Adekeye, for Special Adviser
to the governor on Media and Communication.
Other recommendations were for the current Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the current Executive Secretary,State Pension Bureau to step aside for proper investigation.
The committee stated that all loans obtained by the Kaduna State Government between 29th May, 2015 to 29th May, 2023 obtained without due process were not binding on the state.
He added that the state government should henceforth stop honouring all obligations arising from them.
Also some the contractors who have not worked or were overpaid should refund to the state government a total sum of N36.35 billion being monies paid for contracts .
But the former governor dismissed the report.