Ambassador-designate Reno Omokri has said former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai is not being persecuted but is being prosecuted.

MyNigeria reported that El-Rufai was almost arrested at the airport on his way from Egypt on Thursday. In a statement, he claimed that his passport was seized by security agents who failed to state why they wanted to arrest him.

Reacting, Omokri, in a piece titled 'Before You Feel Sorry For Nasir el-Rufai'. recalled all the alleged atrocities witnessed when El-Rufai was the governor of Kaduna State.

He said, "Look at the attached photo very carefully. It is unedited. In case the notoriously short-memory Nigerian public has forgotten, this is what Nasir el-Rufai did to Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky when he was Governor of Kaduna State for eight unfortunate years between 2015 and 2023.

"In addition to reducing Sheikh Zakzaky to such a barbaric and pathetic state, 347 Shia Muslim men, women, children, and infants were massacred under Nasir el-Rufai.

"That was the official figure. The unofficial figure put the death toll at about a thousand!

"Under Nasir el-Rufai, his critic, Abubakar Idris, was snatched from his house before Salatul Jumu'ah prayers on Friday, August 2, 2019, never to be seen again to this day. He is believed dead!

"Dadiyata, as Abubakar Idris is (or was) fondly called, left behind at home a wife, Khadija Ahmad Lame, and two young daughters, Hanifa and Fatima, who have been living in trauma since his 2019 abduction under the el-Rufai despotic regime.

"Nasir el-Rufai arrested multiple journalists and activists for covering him negatively, including:
Jacob Onjewu Dickson
Segun Onibiyo
Midat Joseph
Audu Maikori

"Audu Maikori had to escape Nigeria for the United States, where I met him, interviewed him, and shuddered in terror at what Nasir el-Rufai did to him.

"After Nasir el-Rufai was criticised by the Peoples Democratic Party in Kaduna, he demolished a house linked to the official who criticised him on claims that the house hosted a "sex party". I interviewed the owner, Aisha Mercy Yakubu, and she said nothing of such occurring. She was just a victim of Nasir el-Rufai's vendetta!

"Nasir el-Rufai also demolished the home of his major critic, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, the leader of a faction of the Kaduna State All Progressives Congress opposed to him.

"To further disgrace Senator Hunkuyi, the house was demolished at 2 a.m.

"Nasir el-Rufai also demolished the house of another critic, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir, then the APC National Vice Chairman (North West), who was strongly critical of el-Rufai and opposed his re-election.

"This is a man who boasted of paying killer herdsmen. The ordeal of the harrowing experiences of Southern Kaduna Christians under this butcher is another cautionary tale.

"His hatred for Christians and Christianity is encapsulated in his boast that: 'Even if Pope is my running mate, Christians won’t vote for me.'

"So, please, Nasir el-Rufai should stop all this grandstanding and falsely accusing the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, of his present condition.
"The truth is that Nasir el-Rufai is fingered in the alleged theft of ₦423 billion during his tenure by no less a body than the Kaduna State House of Assembly. He is not above the law or above arrest.

"He should not resist legal arrest or try to blame others for his alleged crimes. It is doubtful that any Governor in the history of Nigeria has arrested more of their critics than Nasir el-Rufai.

"And because he did it, his guilty conscience makes him think that everybody is like him.

"No, Nasir, you are not being persecuted. You are being prosecuted!"

ASA