FORMER Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Sunday said that his successor, Senator Uba Sani, is not his friend.
El-Rufai, 65, who was instrumental to Sani’s emergence as Kaduna State governor in 2023, however, dispelled rumours of a rift between him and the governor.
There were reports that the duo were at loggerheads following El-Rufai’s criticisms of the Federal Government’s policies and the Kaduna State Government.
But speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics monitored by News Point Nigeria, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said both men were never friends.
El-Rufai said, “I’ve not fallen out with the governor. No, he is not my friend. He was my boy, my mentee. We have not fallen out. I still don’t speak with him,” he stated.
“My biggest pride in life is that I have encouraged and elevated many people to greatness, some even greater than me, and I am very proud of it.
“But when a person derails, when he doesn’t do the right thing, because I contributed to getting him there, I am prohibited from commenting? Is that what the country has become?”
During the interview, he accused the governor of being behind the attack at the Kaduna African Democratic Congress (ADC) committee inauguration in Kaduna last Saturday and other opposition politicians in the state.
El-Rufai claimed that there was evidence that the state governor orchestrated the attack.
He said, “I have evidence; Kaduna State Governor is behind Saturday’s attacks. I will submit evidence to the IGP and other authorities if they care to investigate.”
He further lamented that “the policing system has collapsed in Nigeria,” alleging that police operatives were watching when the opposition figures came under attack.
Chaos erupted at the official inauguration of a transition committee jointly set up by opposition parties in Kaduna State last Saturday, after suspected political thugs invaded the event.
El-Rufai, who has since dissociated himself from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is one of the leaders of the opposition coalition that chose the ADC as its political platform for the 2023 general elections.