The 2023 vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has called for former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to face legal questioning over his recent claims that the Federal Government is paying bandits.
Speaking on Wednesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Baba-Ahmed said the allegation was too serious to be dismissed and insisted that the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) should have acted swiftly.
“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 said, dismissing the NSA’s rebuttal of El-Rufai’s comments.
Pressed on what he would have done differently, he said, “Nasir should be writing some statements to the police, to the courts.”
El-Rufai had on Sunday, also on Channels Television, accused the government of adopting what he described as a “kiss-the-bandits policy” — alleging that allowances and food supplies were being provided to criminal groups under the guise of a non-kinetic security strategy.
“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,” El-Rufai said.
The allegation drew an immediate response from the NSA’s office. In a statement on Monday signed by Zakari Mijinyawa, the ONSA described the former governor’s claims as “false and baseless,” stressing that the administration has never paid ransoms or offered inducements to criminal groups, and continues to warn citizens against such practices.
