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Reno Omokri, a former Presidential aide has disclosed how Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has been maligning former President Goodluck Jonathan because he was not picked as Vice President.
Omokri said this in reaction to El-Rufai’s indictment of Jonathan having harboured plans to jail him.
He stated that the Kadu State governor went on self-imposed exile during the tenure of former President Umar Yar’adua and only returned to the country on May 5, 2010, the exact day Yar’adua passed on.
According to Omokri, El-Rufai came back due to his conviction that the Jonathan administration would be favourable for him.
The former aide said El-Rufai visited Jonathan at the State House six days after his return and held a press conference where he made “unsolicited comments” asking Jonathan to contest the 2011 election and assured him he would support.
He said, “After the then President named Mr Namadi Sambo as his Vice President, two days later on May 13, 2010, Mr El-Rufai became very bitter and made plans to leave the Peoples Democratic Party and began to undermine the Jonathan administration.
“In keeping with the Jonathan Doctrine, wherein Dr. Jonathan said “I have no enemies to fight, because of my confidence that people can only do to me what God permits”, the then President refused to move against Mr. El-Rufai.”
Speaking on, Omokri said security reports received by Jonathan indicated that El-Rufai was engaged in provocative activities in order to instigate his own arrest to boost his popularity.
He added that the governor made several inciting comments that were injurious to Nigeria’s peace, unity and progress.
He recalled that on September 8, 2014, El-Rufai claimed Jonathan founded and funded Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion to give Islam a bad name.
According to him, on November 25, 2014, El-Rufai told the world that Jonathan travelled to Chad to plan Boko Haram attacks with late President Idriss Deby.
Omokri further mentioned the January 5, 2014 allegation by El-Rufai where the governor said prominent Nigerians like himself, President Buhari and others were on a list of people to be killed by the Jonathan administration.
He, however, noted that though the inciting statements could have led to his arrest and prosecution, Jonathan took a statesmanly position to ignore them, in order not to heighten the political tension in the country.
This post was written by Obiajulu Joel Nwolu.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.