N423bn fraud: We stand by our report, el-Rufai economical with truth — Kaduna Assembly

Kaduna – The Kaduna State House of Assembly, yesterday, said it stood by its report indicting former Governor Nasir el-Rufai of alleged diversion of N423, 115,028,072.88.

According to the House, the few political appointees who addressed a press briefing Tuesday in Abuja had been making desperate, but futile moves to denigrate the House and cover up the alleged fraud perpetrated by the el-Rufai government represented no one but themselves.

According to the House, “If they genuinely have the interest of Kaduna State and are truly men and women of integrity, they would have applied themselves to developing the state instead of participating in the alleged pilfering of its scarce resources,”

Chairman Fact-Finding Committee and Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Henry Magaji in a statement said among others, “The attention of the Kaduna State House of Assembly has been drawn to a press conference addressed by some senior political appointees of the immediate past administration of Malam Nasir El-Rufai.

“In the press conference, the former political appointees made strenuous efforts to pick holes in the report of the Probe Committee. They resorted to name calling and wild allegations on the motivations for the House Probe. We wish to state as follows:

“The press conference was just a rehash of the vituperations and innuendoes heaped on us by the former political appointees in their first press briefing. There was nothing new that should warrant our response. They failed to address the main issue, which is the systematic and coordinated cornering of the resources of Kaduna State through phoney contracts and outright looting.”