Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai has initiated legal action against the Kaduna State House of Assembly concerning a ₦432 billion investigation report.
The Kaduna House of Assembly has accused El-Rufai and his commissioners of corruption and financial mismanagement during his eight-year tenure.
El-Rufai governed Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023.
In April, the Kaduna Assembly formed a 13-member ad-hoc committee to scrutinize the loans, grants, and project implementations during El-Rufai’s administration.
The committee, led by Henry Zacharia, delivered a report claiming that the loans secured by the El-Rufai administration were not utilized for their intended purposes, and that many projects were not awarded through a fair process.
El-Rufai’s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, stated that the former governor appeared at the Federal High Court in Kaduna to sign an affidavit supporting his fundamental rights enforcement case against the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the Kaduna State Government.
Adekeye mentioned that El-Rufai requested the court to nullify the House of Assembly’s Ad-hoc committee report on his eight years of governance, arguing that it violated his right to a fair hearing as guaranteed by the Constitution.
“His lawyer, AU Mustapha SAN, said that El-Rufai approached the court as a Nigerian citizen who is entitled to be given a fair hearing before his rights can be determined by a 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,” Adekeye stated.
“El-Rufai also asked the court to declare that by the provisions of 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 29 May 2015 to 29 May 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.”
