Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said on Sunday he never prevented the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from performing its functions as widely reported; rather he went to court to clear his name.
In a statement by El-Rufai’s counsel, A.U. Mustapha (SAN), the governor of Kaduna State said he approached the court in 2009 to clear his name when he was being smeared by the anti-graft agency.
Mustapha said, “EFCC sustained a media campaign that N32bn was missing, compelling Mallam El-Rufai to approach the court for a declaratory judgment which has since been given in his favour.”
He said it was the declaratory judgment that Justice Nyako recently reaffirmed in her ruling, reiterating that the declaratory orders in favour of the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory subsisted.
El Rufai’s counsel noted that a clarification becomes necessary because of “the false and abjectly misleading reportage of the judgment of the Hon. Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on 29th November 2019.”
The statement recalled that as Minister of the FCT, El-Rufai allocated plots in Abuja to more than 27,000 Nigerians and presided over a transparent process that sold government houses and earned the Federal Government a whopping N32bn.
El Rufai’s counsel recalled that an intensely politicised EFCC had allowed itself to be suborned into smearing people.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria recalled that El Rufai had approached the court to determine three cogent issues, chief among which was “whether the applicant, as the then FCT Minister/Chairman, Federal Capital Development Authority, complied with the guidelines approved by the Federal Executive Council for the sale of Federal Government houses in the FCT between May 2005 and May 2007.”
Mustapha further said that El Rufai had sought seven reliefs from the court, which included “a declaration that the sale of Federal Government houses in the FCT was conducted in accordance with the Federal Executive Council mandate to the FCTA through the ad hoc committee for the sale of non essential houses in Abuja’
El Rufai’s counsel said, “The fact remains that the court granted all the reliefs sought by our client and we are satisfied with that.”
