Labour Party (LP) vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has criticised former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, over his recent claim that the government has been paying bandits.
Speaking on a television programme monitored by THISDAY, Baba-Ahmed said El-Rufai could not absolve himself of responsibility, insisting that he was part of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he accused of politicising insecurity.
“El-Rufai cannot run away because he is part of it. He was one of the architects of APC from 2013, and all of a sudden, he wants to absolve himself. No. We suffered, we are victims of his misrule in Zaria,” Baba-Ahmed said.
The former senator alleged that the APC had used insecurity as a political tool, adding that El-Rufai’s statement confirmed the government’s complicity. “I think he is right, the government has been paying them. Insecurity has been the APC’s way of staying in power,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed also faulted the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for downplaying El-Rufai’s remarks, stressing that the allegation required serious investigation. “If the position of the government is to be paying bandits, then we don’t have a nation,” he warned.
El-Rufai had recently stirred controversy after alleging that both the federal and Kaduna State governments were worsening insecurity by empowering bandits.
