El-Rufai absent as Kaduna APC executive passes vote of confidence in Uba Sani

Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, was absent at the state’s executive committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The executive committee meeting — the highest organ of the APC in Kaduna — passed a vote of confidence in Uba Sani, governor of the state, on Saturday.

The meeting is meant for party members who currently hold — or have held — top public positions in Kaduna or in the country.

The committee commended the governor’s “rural transformation initiatives and exemplary youth and women empowerment programmes”.

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives; Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, a former governor of Kaduna; Datti Babawo, vice-chair of the APC in the north-west; and Yusuf Dahiru Liman, speaker of the Kaduna house of assembly, attended the meeting.

The relationship between el-Rufai and Sani deteriorated in the last couple of months.

In March, Sani said his administration inherited a debt of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the el-Rufai administration.

The Kaduna governor said the huge debt burden is eating deep into the state’s share of the monthly federation allocation.

Thereafter, an ad hoc committee set up by the Kaduna house of assembly recommended the probe of el-Rufai.

On June 26, el-Rufai sued the state assembly over the claim that his administration mismanaged N423 billion.