Not less than 17, 600 persons have signed a petition seeking to have the European Union and the United Kingdom place a travel ban on Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, over allegations surrounding killings in southern Kaduna.
Curiously, the Governor and the state government has maintained a studied silence over the petition by a former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and two others. Many others have described the allegations as persecution, insisting they cannot be proved.
The petition titled, Petition For The Government of the United Kingdom and the European Union to Place a Travel Ban on Nasir El-Rufai, for Promoting Genocide and Religious and Political Intolerance, on the Change.org website reads:
Nasir El-Rufai is a threat to the peace and security of Nigeria for many reasons chief of which are that:
On December 3, 2016, he admitted that he paid killer herdsmen who killed Nigerian citizens, because they were of the same ethnicity as him. Since that admission, there has been an intense escalation of the killings of mostly Christians in Kaduna, and on August 25, 2020, suspected herdsmen abducted seven school children and their teacher from Prince Academy, in Kaduna. They have not been seen or heard of since then
On September 8, 2014, Nasir El-Rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.
On January 27, 2013, he insulted the Lord Jesus Christ on Twitter
On February 6, 2019, he threatened foreign observers, including observers from the EU and UK with death, warning that they would return in “body bags”, should they intervene in Nigeria.
On July 15, 2012, Nasir El-Rufai said, and I quote “We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes.” This threat has been carried out in Southern Kaduna were there is an ongoing genocide of Christians under El-Rufai’s watch.
On August 23, 2019, he charged the Anglican Bishop of Zaria province of Kaduna, Abiodun Ogunyemi,for defamation.
Nasir El-Rufai circulated an email referring to Southern Nigerian women as whores.
On April 13, 2020, proving that the Apple does not fall far from the tree, his son, Bello El-Rufai threatened to gang rape the mother of a Southern Christian woman, proving that the idea that Southern women are “whores” is well established in the El-Rufai household.
On April 24, 2019, another of his sons, Bashir El-Rufai, described the pogrom against Igbos as “sweet”.
It is for this reason that Nigerian citizens call on the government of the United Kingdom and the European Union Presidency to follow the lead of the United States and place a visa ban on Nasir El-Rufai, who is scheming to become Nigeria’s President, to prevent a Rwandan style genocide in Nigeria.