El-Rufai sues Kaduna Assembly for fundamental rights enforcement

A former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has sued the Kaduna State House of Assembly over the assembly’s claim that his eight-year administration allegedly mismanaged N432bn leaving the state with huge debt liabilities.

The former governor filed a fundamenatal rights suit at Federal High Court in Kaduna against state House of Assembly on Wednesday.

The suit, filed by the ex-governor’s lawyer Abdulhakeem Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, challenged the report of the Kaduna Assembly Committee which indicted El-Rufai for alleged corruption

El-Rufai’s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye in a statement said, “Malam Nasir @elrufai was at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, today to sign the affidavit supporting his fundamental rights enforcement case against the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the Kaduna State Government.

“His lawyer, AU Mustapha SAN, said that El-Rufai approached the court as a Nigerian citizen who is entitled to be given a fair hearing before his rights can be determined by a quasi-judicial or investigative body or courts in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

“El-Rufai also asked the court to declare that by the provisions of Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Investigation of Loans, Financial Transactions, Contractual Liabilities and Other Related Matters of the Government of Kaduna State from 29 May 2015 to 29 May 2023, as ratified by the Kaduna State House of Assembly, is unconstitutional and therefore null and void for violating his right to fair hearing as guaranteed under the Constitution.”