Avoid El-Rufai, Datti Baba-Ahmed Political Row, APC Chieftain Urges NSA Ribadu

An All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, Farouk Aliyu, has advised the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to steer clear of the ongoing war of words between former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and Labour Party’s 2023 vice presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over the government’s handling of insecurity.

Speaking on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme on Tuesday, Aliyu cautioned Ribadu against engaging in what he described as a political dispute.

“Let me use this opportunity to beg my brother, Nuhu Ribadu, he should not join issues with Nasiru El-Rufai or Datti Baba-Ahmed. No. He is beyond that; he shouldn’t talk. Let him allow other people to take it up, because they are talking politics,” Aliyu said.

While acknowledging that insecurity remains a national concern, Aliyu urged political leaders not to exploit the issue for partisan purposes.

He criticised El-Rufai’s past comments, particularly his rhetoric of “killing them all,” saying such an approach failed to improve security during his tenure as governor.

“He was governor for eight years. Tell me, between when El-Rufai was governor of Kaduna and now, these two years, what is better in terms of insecurity?

The way he wanted everyone to be killed didn’t work. Sadly, the government of the day does not negotiate with terrorists,” the APC chieftain stated.

On the same programme, Datti Baba-Ahmed dismissed El-Rufai’s recent claim that the federal government was paying bandits, insisting the former governor could not wash his hands off the situation.

“El-Rufai cannot run away because he is part of it. My grudge with Nasiru’s statement is that he was part and parcel of the APC from 2013. Like he told you, he was one of the architects of it all. All of a sudden, [he wants] to come and absolve himself, no. Nasiru is part and parcel of all that has been going on. We suffered; we are victims of Nasiru’s misrule in Zaria,” Baba-Ahmed said.

He further challenged the NSA to treat El-Rufai’s allegations with the seriousness they deserve.

“If the so-called office of the National Security Adviser would take this statement with levity, then Nuhu Ribadu was never a policeman; he is not a qualified lawyer; he should not be in that office. El-Rufai should be writing some statements to the police, to the courts,” Baba-Ahmed added.