El-Rufai's investigation: Kaduna Assembly questions administrators, commissioners, and others

On Monday, the Kaduna State House of Assembly called witnesses for an ad hoc committee, which was established to look into the eight years of the immediate-past governor of the state, Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s administration, including administrators, contractors, and commissioners who were currently serving or had previously served.

Among those called are Thomas Gyang, a former commissioner of the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure; Ja’afaru Ibrahim Sani, a former commissioner of the Ministry of Education; Dr. Manzo Daniel Maigari, an administrator of the Zaria Metropolitan Authority; Balarabe Aliyu, an administrator of the Kafanchan Metropolitan Authority; Phoebe YAYI SUKAI, a former managing director of the Kaduna State Roads Agency (KADRA); and others.

This has to do with the state Assembly’s investigation into all contracts, loans, and financial transactions that were made during the El-Rufai administration.

The state Assembly’s investigation was launched several weeks after Uba Sani, the current governor of Kaduna State, expressed regret over El-Rufai’s massive debt load.

Speaking at a town hall gathering in Kaduna, Sani said he could not pay employee salaries because he inherited a little treasury.

Sani said, “Despite the huge debt burden of N587m, N85bn, and N115bn contractual liabilities sadly inherited from the previous administration, we remain resolute in steering Kaduna State towards progress and sustainable development.

“We have conducted a thorough assessment of our situation and are sharpening our focus accordingly.”

Reactions to Sani’s announcement came from a variety of places. El-Rufai’s son, Bashir, turned to his social media account to accuse his father’s heir of avoiding his responsibilities.

Rather than serving as governor of Kaduna, as he was elected to do, Bashir accused the governor of always avoiding the state and hibernating in Abuja.

The controversy also resulted in Maryam Suleiman, the Kano APC Women Leader, being suspended. Suleiman defended El-Rufai and confronted Governor Sani.

On the other hand, former commissioners and administrators working under former governor Nasir El-Rufai—whose eight-year term is under investigation—were called before the Adhoc Committee established by the House on Monday.

According to PUNCH’s findings, MPs in the House of Assembly Complex questioned some of the officials still working for incumbent governor Uba Sani for several hours between the start of the session at 11 a.m. and its conclusion at 8:00 p.m.

The committee’s chairman, Henry Danjuma, who represents the Kagarko constituency, informed reporters that the committee felt it necessary to call in both current and former government officials in order to help them fulfill their mandate of investigating the circumstances surrounding loans and contractual obligations during the governor El-Rufai’s administration.

The deputy speaker, Danjuma, stated that if more officials were required, the committee would call them in.

He stated that the evidence presented to the committee by the authorities who had already testified would be the main factor in determining this.

He said that since “there have been honest and frank discussions between us and those that appeared before so far,” the session had been fruitful thus far.

Additionally, he clarified that the committee’s task was to determine whether there were any disparities between the loans and contractual duties of the state’s recent government.

The Chairman said, “Today, we have invited some key persons that we deem it necessary to have them interviewed so that we can get testimonies to aid us to get to an appropriate conclusion. So that we can give a justified report of our committee.

“Depending on the evidence we heard from those before us, there might be people that may be invited based on the testimonies that we are receiving from those that have been invited.

“I’m happy that there have been honest discussions between us and those that appeared before us.

“The Adhoc Committee is to investigate financial dealings that have to do with loans and contractual obligations by the Kaduna State Government from 29 May 2015 to May 29, 2023, to unravel whether there were any misdemeanours.”