Some youths in Kaduna State on Sunday
carpeted a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam
Nasir el-Rufai, for disparaging the President, Christian Association of
Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, over the latter’s alleged involvement
in the $9.3m smuggled cash into Johannesburg, South Africa.
The money was said to be meant for the procurement of arms for intelligence agencies in Nigeria.
The
money, valued at about R102m, was frozen by the South African
authorities. Ever since, controversies have continued to trail the
smuggled money, with fingers allegedly pointing at the CAN president.
However,
the youths, under the aegis of the Kaduna Patriotic Youths for
Development, condemned the former FCT minister, who is eyeing the
governorship seat in Kaduna State in 2015, over a comment they claimed
disparaged the personality of Oritsejafor.
The
youths, in a statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna on Sunday by
the National Coordinator, Mr. Danladi Husseini-Abubakar, and the
General Secretary, Ishaku Irimiya, respectively, said the attack on the
CAN leader was an attack on all Christians as well as the Church of God,
which must not be taken lightly.
According
to the statement, the former minister’s audacity for calling the CAN
leader ‘irresponsible’ was a reminder of el-Rufai’s tyrannical reign as
the minister of FCT under the administration of ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
They, therefore, called on the former minister to retract the negative statement and tendered apology to the ‘man of God.’
The
statement said, “It is unfortunate that the former minister has
remained consistent in his quest to smear the CAN President and indeed
the Church of God. This is not the first time El-Rufa’i has deployed his
verbal venom and obvious deep hate for the CAN leader and indeed the
organisation and community he leads.
“We
view el-Rufa’i’s penchant for using abusive and berating statements
against CAN leadership as a crass display of arrogance and disrespect
for the entire Christian community in Nigeria, which Pastor Oritsejafor
leads.
”The former minister is known
for his disrespect for elders and leaders at all levels in this country.
Little wonder he has no one to guide his actions which are becoming
inimical to the credibility of his own personality as an accidental
elite.
“Nigerians will never forget
how el-Rufai flouted court injunctions to indiscriminately demolish
homes while rendering thousands of families homeless, including the
highly respected late Justice Bashir Sambo, whom he threw out of his
home in the middle of a storm.”
The
group also urged the people of the state to be wary of the former
minister’s plot to contest the 2015 governorship election in the state
on the platform of the All Progressives Congress
“Kaduna
people must be wary of this accidental politician, who has no respect
for human dignity. We have fear for the people and we want them to
reject el-Rufa’i and halt his inordinate political ambition even before
the primary election of his party. It is clear that his arrogance has
not left him and he certainly plans to unleash another regime of tyranny
on the people,” it said.
