Alleged Graft: Court Cleared El-Rufai Of Alleged Misappropriation Of N32bn, Says Counsel

A file photo of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai. Photo: Twitter

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, says the Federal High Court, Abuja had cleared him of allegations of misappropriation of the sum of N32 billion from the sale of some Federal Government houses when he was the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

He said this in reaction to reports which according to him, had misrepresented Justice Binta Nyako’s reaffirmation of an earlier judgement, by portraying him as preventing the EFCC from perform its duties.

Speaking through his counsel, Abduhakeem Mustapha (SAN) in a statement, El-Rufai noted that he had approached the court in 2009 to clear his name when he was being ‘smeared’ by the anti-graft agency.

“At no point did Nasir El-Rufai seek to stop the EFCC from performing its statutory functions. Rather, he only went to court in 2009 to defend his reputation” the statement read in part.

According to Mustapha, “the EFCC sustained a media campaign that N32bn was missing, compelling El-Rufai to approach the court for a declaratory judgment which had since been given in his favour.”

He further explained that it was the declaratory judgement that Justice Nyako reaffirmed in her ruling, reiterating that the declaratory orders in favour of the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), subsist.

According to him, the clarification became necessary because of “the false and abjectly misleading reportage of the judgment of the Hon. Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on 29th November 2019”.

The statement recalled that as Minister of FCT, El-Rufai allocated plots in Abuja to more than 27,000 Nigerians and presided over a transparent process that sold government houses and earned the Federal Government a whopping N32bn.

“No decent man would permit slurs on such a stellar record. Therefore, Malam Nasir El-Rufai approached the court and the court agreed with him that there is no missing N32bn proceeds of sale of government houses,” Mustapha argued further.

“The court also held that the proceeds of the sales of the government houses were properly accounted for and audited”.

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