A group, under the aegis of Forum for Transparency and Accountability inGovernance, on Friday urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not to succumb topressures by any politician with pending allegation of fraud related cases incourt or at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) to beappointed into his cabinet under the guise of being a loyal party member.
The call on the President was at the backdrop of the much-expected list of ministerial nominees to be sent to the Senate by President Tinubu. The President has a statutory period of 60 days to make the list available to the upper legislative Chamber for screening.
The transparency group, in an issued statement jointly signed by its Convener, Dr Bala Musa Mustapha, Secretary-General, Nouel Malama and Director of Publicity, Nafisa Hamid Jika respectively, maintained that President Tinubu should tread with caution and not to appoint politicians with questionable character into his cabinet.
The group emphasised that the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufa’i should be kept at arm’s length and be isolated from the corridor of power, if the present administration should be taken seriously, given that he is standing trial for allegedly embezzling N32 billion revenues from sales of Federal Government Houses between 2005 and 2007 when he was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
The group recalled the Justice Binta Nyako-led Federal High Court ruling dated 19th November, 2019, where she ruled that Malam Nasir El-Rufai lacked powers to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC from investigating and prosecuting him over fraud allegations. Justice Nyako, in her judgement, which was filed by el-Rufa’i where he listed 13 respondents including the EFCC, FG and others, seeking to stop his prosecution, the Court insisted that el-Rufa’i must account for the whereabouts of N32 billion.
The forum maintained that the prosecution of el-Rufa’i was progressing at the Federal High Court until he became governor of Kaduna State in May 2015 when immunity of office halted it, insisting that now that he is out of office, the anti-graft agency ought to have resumed his prosecution, rather than contemplating offering him a Minister.
The statement read: “Any government that prides itself on probity and accountability should not be seen to patronise the likes of the former governor of Kaduna State. It’s in the public domain that Malam el-Rufa’i is facing prosecution of N32 billion in court. Also, the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is facing rejection over his dirty past involving dollar bribes; and what is good for Ganduje should be good for el-Rufa’i”.
“We hope that President Tinubu will come out clean on the El-Rufai issue, while we hope that he should not allow Nigerians to hit the streets before doing the right thing”, the group further stated.
The group further called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other anti-graft agencies to rise to the occasion of prosecuting former and incumbent public officers who have pending cases, so that their actions would not be misinterpreted as select prosecution of corrupt officials of government.
