Seven commissioners who served under former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai have denied allegations that N423,115,028,072.88 was stolen during his administration from 2015 to 2023. These claims come from a report by the House of Assembly.
The ex-commissioners accused Governor Uba Sani and the lawmakers of conducting a witch-hunt against them. In a press conference held in Abuja, they expressed frustration that el-Rufai was not allowed to defend himself during the investigation. They also pointed out that the Assembly has not provided a certified true copy of its June 5, 2024, proceedings.
Jafaru Sani, former commissioner of Environment and Education, led the press conference. He criticized the Assembly’s report, saying it was full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations of officials’ testimonies. According to him, the report seemed pre-determined and aimed at damaging the reputations of certain members of the Kaduna State Executive Council from 2015 to 2023. He described the report as a series of falsehoods disguised as an investigation.
He further explained that despite formal requests, the House of Assembly has not released the certified true copy of the adopted report. Sani questioned why the Assembly would withhold the report from those who were summoned and whose testimonies were used to make baseless recommendations.
Sani was joined by other former commissioners: Hafsat Baba (Human Services and Social Development), Thomas Gyang (Public Works and Infrastructure, Planning and Budget Commission), Bashir Saidu (Finance and former chief of staff), Ibrahim Husaini (Agriculture, Environment), Aisha Dikko (Justice), Fausat Ibikunle (Housing and Urban Development), and Idris Nyam (Business, Innovation and Technology, Sports Development).
They collectively dismissed the Assembly’s probe and final report as being filled with lies. They highlighted inconsistencies in the figures cited by the ad-hoc committee. On Page 168, the report claimed that Kaduna State’s total revenue from May 2015 to May 2023 was N1,497,682,993,375 and $758,141,699. However, the ex-commissioners argued that the committee likely meant N1.497 trillion, as N1.497 billion is too small for the state’s eight-year revenue.
Even with this correction, the report presented a different figure on Page 137. There, the total revenue for Kaduna State (state and 23 local governments) over the eight years was listed as N1,236,080,191,080.72. The local government share was N424,416,878,102.20, and the state government’s share was N811,663,310,000 on Page 138. Yet, on Page 168, the committee used a different figure of N1,497,682,993,375 without explanation.
These discrepancies within the report, the former commissioners argued, show the lack of consistency, credibility, and reliability of the findings.
