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The Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has alleged that the eight years of Nasir El-Rufai as governor of Kaduna State was characterised with massive killings and decimation of Christian-dominated areas of Southern Kaduna.
The forum noted that the former governor acted unconcerned with the genocidal attacks on communities located in the south where scores of towns and villages were decimated and tens of thousands killed, including deploying religion to subjugate the area by denying the indigenous groups political appointments.
Dr Isuwa Dogo, the National Publicity Secretary of the forum, in a statement on Sunday, condemned the pronouncements by the former governor while addressing a select group of Islamic clerics after the conclusion of the presidential and governorship polls.
Former governor El-Rufai had in the meeting with Islamic clerics, told the preachers how he, with others, plotted to enthrone the same-faith ticket in the state that was later successfully replicated at the Federal level.
The National Publicity Secretary of the forum, said, “What he (El-Rufai) never told his selected preachers was that the state he ruled and ruined for eight years was turned into Nigeria’s headquarters of kidnappings and human barbarities that led to the murder of tens of thousands of people and decimation of over 100 communities under his watch.”
The MBF said it was outraged by the deceitful attempts by el-Rufai and his nebulous co-travellers to push the nation down the slippery slope of religious tension and bigotry.
According to the statement, “the unfortunate comments by this bigot, who is erroneously thought of as a nationalist and public intellectual, portray him as a divisive leader who not only thrives in creating chaos, but also reveal him as an irredeemable religious extremist whose antecedents as governor showcases him as a treacherous enemy of Nigeria that must be barred from the corridor of power.
“Even before now, the Forum has never been deceived by the pretentiousness of the former governor whose stock in trade is divisiveness hidden under the thin covering of a public intellectualism and patriotism.”
The forum noted that the former governor remained a clear present and future danger to the unity of the nation, saying that both Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be wary of associating with him.
The statement decried, “This little but dangerous manipulator, who is skilled in the politics of deploying religious sentiments, must not be allowed near the corridor of power. He has become a national evil that must be avoided at all costs.
“We hereby denounce el-Rufai’s comments before the clerics as a shameless act of national hypocrisy steeped in the premeditated plot to set adherents of both religions on war path.”
