Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has rejected claims by ex-governor Nasir El-Rufai that the Kaduna State government under Governor Uba Sani paid N1 billion to bandits, describing the allegation as “false and ridiculous.”
In a statement released to journalists on Sunday, Sani said the former governor’s assertion lacked credibility and was politically motivated. He accused El-Rufai of institutionalizing a “culture of appeasement to terrorists” during his eight-year tenure.
Sani recalled that El-Rufai had previously admitted to conducting “conditional cash transfers” to bandits, a disclosure that led to the arrest of journalist Luka Biniyat at the time. He also highlighted some of the state’s worst security incidents under El-Rufai, including the Kaduna–Abuja train attack, the Greenfield University abductions, and attacks on the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Bethel Baptist High School, and other institutions.
“Under his watch, bandits and terrorists operated freely like lords and kings,” Sani said, adding that large parts of Southern and Central Kaduna became “slaughterhouses where criminals acted unchallenged.” He also noted that insecurity had forced a temporary closure of the Kaduna airport.
Sani referenced El-Rufai’s decision to withdraw his son from a public school over safety concerns, arguing that it contradicts the former governor’s current comments on security.
Challenging El-Rufai to provide evidence, Sani said: “If he has images or videos showing cash being handed to bandits, he should make them public.”
He further alleged that El-Rufai’s claims were driven by “envy” over Governor Uba Sani’s efforts to foster unity between Southern Kaduna’s predominantly Christian communities and the Muslim-majority North. The former senator accused El-Rufai of presiding over an era marked by “religious and ethnic discrimination, division, persecution, torment and terror.”
While acknowledging that Kaduna still faces security challenges, Sani insisted that Governor Uba Sani has made significant strides in bridging religious divides and dismantling the structures of banditry allegedly inherited from his predecessor.
“No sensible or responsible person conscious of history will give credence to the stream of lies that have become habitual in the life of a man in his mid-60s,” Sani concluded.
