N423bn theft: El-Rufai economical with truth: We stand by our report -Kaduna Assembly.

Over the weekend, the House of Assembly in Kaduna State reaffirmed its earlier report that indicted former Governor Nasir el-Rufai on charges of alleged N423,115,028,072.88 diversion.

House officials claim that the few political appointees who spoke at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday were trying to smear the House and hide the alleged fraud committed by the el-Rufai administration, but their efforts were misguided and ultimately unsuccessful.

If they actually care about Kaduna State and are honest people, the House claims, they would have worked to improve the state rather than taking part in the alleged theft of its limited funds.

Statements made by Fact-Finding Committee Chairman and Assembly Deputy Speaker Henry Magaji included the following: “Some senior political appointees of the immediate past administration of Malam Nasir El-Rufai addressed a press conference.”

The ex-political appointees wasted no time trying to find fault with the Probe Committee’s report during the press briefing. Concerning the reasons behind the House Probe, they resorted to making baseless accusations and smearing names. We would like to emphasise the following:

“The press conference merely consisted of restating the accusations and slurs made by the previous political appointees during their initial press briefing. Nothing fresh occurred that necessitated a reply from us.

The organised and systematic cornering of Kaduna State’s resources through phoney contracts and plain looting is the main issue, and they ignored it.