Former Governor Nasir El-Rufai has filed a lawsuit against the Kaduna State House of Assembly, challenging accusations that his administration embezzled N432 billion and left the state with significant debt.
On Wednesday, El-Rufai submitted a fundamental rights enforcement case at the Federal High Court in Kaduna. He personally appeared to file the lawsuit, alleging that the Assembly’s committee denied him a fair hearing.
In a statement released by his media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, on El-Rufai’s X handle, the former governor’s lawyer, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, contested the Assembly Committee’s report, which accused El-Rufai of corruption.
Adekeye’s statement included, “His lawyer, AU Mustapha SAN, stated that El-Rufai approached the court as a Nigerian citizen entitled to fair hearing before his rights can be determined by any quasi-judicial or investigative body or courts, in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
“El-Rufai also requested the court to declare that, under Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Investigation of Loans, Financial Transactions, Contractual Liabilities, and Other Related Matters of the Government of Kaduna State from May 29, 2015, to May 29, 2023, as ratified by the Kaduna State House of Assembly, is unconstitutional and therefore null and void for violating his right to fair hearing as guaranteed under the Constitution.”
Earlier in June, the state Assembly’s ad hoc committee submitted its investigative report on the financial dealings, loans, and contracts of El-Rufai’s administration to the House.
The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Henry Zacharia, alleged that the loans secured during El-Rufai’s tenure were largely misused and that proper procedures were often not followed in obtaining them.
Assembly Speaker Yusuf Liman accused El-Rufai’s administration of misappropriating N432 billion, resulting in substantial financial burdens for the state.
