El-Rufai Stopped From Speaking At Yakowa’s Memorial

By Saharareporters, New York 

 

SaharaReporters can authoritatively report that at the instance of Vice President Namadi Sambo, and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Malam Nasir El-Rufai, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and an indigene of Kaduna State, was on Saturday prevented from speaking during a remembrance event in memory of late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.

Mr. Yakowa died in a plane crash last year, following a funeral in Bayelsa State, along with General Andrew Owoye Azazi, a former National Security Adviser, and four other persons.

A House of Representative member who saw Saturday’s event confirmed it to SaharaReporters how El Rufai was belatedly told by the two Masters of Ceremony he could not present his goodwill message along with others who came there to do so.

He said there were many people, cutting across party affiliations, present, including Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, his brother Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, Mataimaki Tom Maiyashi, and El-Rufai.

“El-Rufai waited, anticipating he will be call upon to speak on Yakowa with whom they worked together during General Abubakar Abdulsalam’s government. But the two MCs Alhaji Zayan and Mairo Adamu hatched the plan and never acknowledged El-Rufai, having been warned. The Zayan is a director in Kaduna State Radio and Adamu is also an aide to the Kaduna governor. This is what we discovered.  El-Rufai pretended as if he did not decode the entire game.”

The legislator explained that it is unfortunate how politics encroached upon the memorial lecture.

“Agreed we have political differences, but it was Yakowa’s family that invited us and the function is not PDP affair but purely family event. So you can see desperation and emasculation of freedom of expression. They know El-Rufai will pay tribute to Yakowa and raise fundamental issues regarding present situation of Kaduna State and the country in general.”

It would be recalled that El-Rufai and VP Sambo, both of whom hail from Zaria, have recently engaged in a media war over the Zaria Water Project when the former Minister alleged during Sambo’s tenure as governor, he mismanaged public funds in the name of the project.

Sambo has denied that allegation.