El-Rufai Persecuted Me Over Tweet, Maikori Alleges

Founder and Chairman of Chocolate City Entertainment Group, Audu Maikori, has accused former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, of persecuting him over a 2017 tweet he acknowledged and took down, alleging that the ex-governor organised for his abduction.

Maikori made the allegations on Monday while fielding questions in an interview on Arise Television ‘Prime Time’ programme, exercising his right of reply following El-Rufai’s appearance on the same programme on Friday.

“It’s not personal. It is about setting the record straight and the facts straight. Ex-governor El-Rufai has a penchant for recreating stories.
Everything that he said is untrue. And I think it’s important for posterity to set the record straight,” Maikori stated.

THE WHISTLER reports that on February 18, 2017, Audu Maikori was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services following social media posts in which he claimed that five students of the College of Education Gidan Waya had been killed during violence in Southern Kaduna.

The claim later generated controversy, with then Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai criticising the posts as unverified and potentially inflammatory.

He argued that publishing such information without proper checks could heighten tensions and possibly trigger retaliatory attacks, stressing that safeguarding lives and property required responsible use of social media.

On March, El-Rufai maintained that the action taken was not personal but part of broader efforts to curb misinformation capable of fuelling violence, while also cautioning the public to verify sensitive security-related information before dissemination

But Explaining the circumstances surrounding the controversial tweet on Monday, Maikori said he immediately acted once he realised the information was false.

“What happened was the tweet, the minute I found the tweet was wrong, was false, I went to the first police station available, which was in Lekki, with my driver, and wrote a statement. The driver actually wrote a confession that he lied. And he did that to obtain money from me for whatever purpose.

“The first phone call I made was to the Attorney General of Kaduna State. Her name is Amina Sijuade. And I said, I just discovered that my driver lied to me. He’s in the police station. He’s in full custody. I’m going to write a full retraction. That retraction was written on the 4th of February, 2017,” he said.

According to him, the said retraction was published, “Very well published. You can Google it. You’ll find it very detailed. I apologised not only to the governor, but to every other person involved.”

However, distinguishing between prosecution and persecution, the entertainment executive argued that while the police handled the matter professionally, El-Rufai allegedly continued pursuing him even after he was discharged.

“I was in Abuja for a week after my initial arrest on the 17th of February. I was there for a week, went through the process. My driver was flown into Abuja. He confessed that it was a lie. It was all on him. I was let go,” he said.

Despite this, Maikori said El-Rufai continued pursuing him even after the police discharged him.

“What happened? The next weekend, Malam was on Social Media Week, and he said, oh, Maikori is a liar. We’re going to prosecute him. We’re trying to link his tweets with the possible death of 7 people.
And if we’re able to do so, you could know the rest.

“How does a governor do that? The police discharged me. The highest office, how does a governor do the job of the police?”

He further stated that the courts later ruled his arrest unlawful, with both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal awarding damages.

“What does Nasir do? He goes to the Supreme Court. So the case is in the Supreme Court. It comes up next year. We’re going to win, of course, and my intention is that the proceeds from the damages shall be used to support journalists and people that cannot get legal representation,” he said.

Makori also accused the former governor of hypocrisy, citing a 2019 incident in which El-Rufai reportedly publicised casualty figures from violence in Kajuru that security authorities said were unverified, adding that no apology or retraction followed.

“Let’s juxtapose that with what Malam El-Rufai did in February 2019. He tweeted that 66 Fulani people were killed in Kajuru local government. The Commissioner of Police, Haji Ahmad, made a statement and said, these facts have not been verified. Please do not bandy these figures around.
The governor refused.

“NEMA chimed in. Senator Shehu Sani, who was the senator of that zone at that point in time, said, these numbers have not been verified. Do not bandy them around. He refused. He went in and made another press statement and said 130 people have been killed.

“Now, if the Commissioner of Police of Kaduna has warned the governor that these numbers are inaccurate, what did Malam do? He didn’t retract.
He didn’t apologise.

“What he did was arrest 9 elders of the Adara community and he jailed them for 143 days. No retraction, no apologies. The Attorney General of Kaduna State himself had to let the case go because there was no evidence,” Maikori stated.

He also cited more cases of alleged persecution under El-Rufai’s administration.

“Charles Steve Kefferson was jailed for 143 days.
He was abducted from Port Harcourt, driven by road and was kept without being charged. No bail.
Adara elders were there for 150 days. No bail, no charge. Just kept there.

“Gloria Ballas, my lawyer, who actually won those cases against him, was being intimidated and harassed. She could not go to her office because there were police manning her office to make sure they arrested her. She had to get a court injunction to stop him from harassing her.

“Is it the demolitions in Kaduna State? Is it the Shiites that were murdered? This is not about Audu Maikori. It is about El-Rufai’s style of leadership.”
Maikori drew a comparison between El-Rufai and current Kaduna Governor Uba Sani.

“Malam was governor for 8 years. Uba Sani has been governor for two and a half years. Kaduna has changed totally. It’s a different place. You could not drive to Kaduna during that 8-year period by road without heavy arms. It’s changed in two and a half months, with this man coming in.

“Southern Kaduna, Malam Nasir said Southern
Kaduna will never vote him. They’re a minority and they’re all PDP people. Today Southern Kaduna has moved significantly from that because of the leadership,” he said.

He described tEl-Rufai’s recent comments as “sour grapes” saying it might be linked to political disappointment following unsuccessful ministerial screening efforts, though he said he was not privy to official reasons.

“This was the same person who was actively campaigning for office. He spoke about it. He even went against his former principal just to make the point. He submitted himself to a Senate screening to be a ministerial appointee. The only thing that turned north or south for him was that he couldn’t get the security clearance, and thereafter he left.

“Whatever those reasons are, I’m not holding for the government. All I know is that you brought these people into power, and just because you didn’t get what you wanted, they became the enemy. But that is typical of Malam Nasir. Look across his history. He’s done it countless times and he’ll do it again.

“We’re in a phase in Nigeria where we’re looking for leadership, and leadership means that we’re giving power to one person to exert on behalf of other people.

“Nasir has always used it as a weapon. Meanwhile, it’s an agent of trust. Power is trust, and if we entrust you with our power and you abuse it, don’t come back and pretend by changing your jersey that you’re another person. No, you’re the same person. You just have different circumstances.

“Nigeria deserves better leadership and we can’t allow people to become born again simply because it’s inconvenient for them to stay in the places that they were before,” he noted.

On politics, Maikori confirmed he is now a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress but insisted the 2017 dispute occurred when both he and El-Rufai were in the same party, arguing that his criticism reflects what he described as a pattern of behaviour rather than partisan bias.