N1b Payments to Bandits : Elrufai lying about bandits payments- Shehu Sani

N1b Payments to Bandits : Elrufai lying about bandits payments- Shehu Sani

Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has dismissed as “false and ridiculous” the claim by ex-Governor Nasir El-Rufai that the Kaduna State Government under Governor Uba Sani paid N1 billion to bandits.

In a strongly-worded statement issued and made available to Journalists today , Senator Sani said the allegation attributed to the former governor lacked credibility and amounted to “politically motivated falsehood.”

In the statement personally signed  by Senator Shehu Sani accused the former governor of establishing what he described as a “culture of appeasement to terrorists” during his administration. According to him, El-Rufai had previously admitted to engaging in “conditional cash transfers” to bandits, a claim which, he noted, led to the arrest of journalist Luka Biniyat at the time.

The former lawmaker argued that Kaduna State witnessed some of its worst security incidents under El-Rufai’s leadership, citing several high-profile attacks including the Kaduna–Abuja train attack, the Greenfield University abductions, and the kidnapping and killing of students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Bethel Baptist High School, and other institutions.

“Under his watch, bandits and terrorists operated freely like lords and kings,” Sani said, adding that large portions of Southern and Central Kaduna became “slaughterhouses where criminals operated unchallenged.” He noted that even the Kaduna airport was shut down at some point due to escalating insecurity.

Sani also referenced El-Rufai’s withdrawal of his son from a public school over safety concerns, arguing that such actions contradict the former governor’s present claims on security.

Challenging El-Rufai to present evidence of any alleged payment by the current administration, Sani said: “If he has images or videos showing cash being handed to bandits, he should make them public.”

The former senator further alleged that El-Rufai is driven by “envy” over what he described as Governor Uba Sani’s success in fostering unity between the predominantly Christian Southern Kaduna and the Muslim-majority Northern Kaduna.

He accused the former governor of presiding over an era marked by “religious and ethnic discrimination, division, persecution, torment and terror.”

While acknowledging that Kaduna, like other northern states, continues to grapple with security challenges, Senator Sani argued that Governor Uba Sani has made notable progress in “building bridges across religious divides and dismantling the structures of banditry allegedly inherited from his predecessor.”

“No sensible or responsible person conscious of history will give credence to the stream of lies that have become habitual in the life of a man in his mid-60s,” he added.