Governor Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna state has threatened Wednesday that the state government will arrest and prosecute former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Alhaji Yaro Makama Rigachikun and an ex Information Commissioner in the state.
Speaking with some selected senior journalists in Kaduna, Mallam El-Rufai said the two PDP chieftains are now in the custody of Department of State Security Service (DSS). They were arrested when both of them recently, in southern Kaduna called on their members to attack and kill whoever is known to be a supporter of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone. However, when the governor was making the threat, Rigachikun was released and he attended Atiku’s town hall meeting in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Similarly, the APC governor dismissed as baseless, claims by some NGO’s including Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that he is spreading a false rumour about communal crisis in southern Kaduna so that elections can be postponed in the state. He said he received briefings from security chiefs that a grave was discovered with 66 bodies that were killed and hurriedly buried by unknown gunmen in the area. That was how he issued statement to the media to that effect.
“I don’t know why whenever I make a simple statement, people will always twist it. As a governor, what am I going to gain if I went to the media and announced that people from certain area of the state were killed only for it to be false? I can never do that. But even the president, the media are fond of misquoting him. Recently, he said whoever snatched a box during election should be dealt with, but the media later reported that he called for shooting for ballot box snatchers.”
Mallam El-Rufai said his recent statement in which he threatened members of observer mission that if they interfere with Nigerian election, they will return to their countries in body bags was misunderstood by the public.
He said: ‘’Yes I said so, but what I meant was that recently, there was election in Venezuela and the opposition candidate that was been supported by America lost the election and was been asked to be sworn in by American government.
‘’This is what I exactly mean, Nigeria is an independent country and we will not tolerate anybody to come here and interfere with our domestic problems as Nigerians will never go to other countries and tamper with their democratic system.
