A Civil Society Group Forum for Transparency and Accountability in Governance has urged President Bola Tinubu to delist the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai from his proposed ministerial list.

The group said that there is a pending allegation case of N32 billion fraud with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which El-Rufai has to answer to, having lost his immunity.

The transparency group in a statement jointly signed by its Convener, Dr Bala Musa Mustapha, Secretary General, Mr Nouel Malama, and Director of Publicity, Nafisa Hamid Jika, urged the President to expunge the former governor’s name from his proposed cabinet members list, so as to have credibility.

They argued that since the governor escaped prosecution while in office, it was time for him to face public probity and the legal consequences of his actions.

The statement read: “Any government that prides itself on probity and accountability should not be seen to patronize the likes of the former governor of Kaduna State. It’s in the public domain that Malam Nasir El-Rufai is facing prosecution of N32 billion in Court.

“Also, the former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is facing rejection over his dirty past involving dollar bribe and what is good for Ganduje should be good for El-Rufai. We hope that President Tinubu will come out clean on the El-Rufai issue, while we hope that he should not allow Nigerians to hit the streets before doing the right thing.

The group further called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other anti-graft agencies to rise to the occasion of prosecuting former and incumbent public officers who have pending cases, so that their actions would not be misinterpreted as select prosecution of corrupt officials of government. (Text, excluding headline: New Telegraph)

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