Hadiza el-Rufai threatens to sue group that accused her of endorsing son’s sexual assault comment

Hadiza el-Rufai, wife of the Kaduna state governor, has threatened to institute a libel suit against a group that accused her of endorsing sexual assault comments made by Bello, her son.

In a heated argument with a Twitter user, Bello had threatened to pass a woman to his friends after he was done with her.

“Oh and tell your mother I’m passing her to my friends tonight. No Igbo sounds, please! Tueh,” he said.

This had generated a lot of controversy. The North Normal Group had accused the Kaduna first lady of endorsing her son’s comments.

However, in a statement signed by Kunle Ajagbe, her lawyer, the first lady, described the allegations of the group as “a pack of injurious falsehoods”.

“Your statements proceeded from an egregiously false premise that our client condoned, aided and or encouraged the statements of her son, Bello El-Rufai, in his online exchanges with the operator of a twitter account, identified as ethanos_zer,” the statement read.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the views expressed by our client’s son were unreservedly unacceptable to her and they were inconsistent with her values. Accordingly, our client tweeted thrice (through her Twitter account, @hadizel) with respect to her son’s views. Both the content and chronology of the tweets are self-explanatory.

“Within 24 hours of her initial tweet on the subject and without prompting, our client posted two further unambiguous tweets, where she publicly condemned her son’s reckless statements. Is this not a clear demonstration of our clienť’s integrity?

“Our client is a respected architect, a writer, a patron of the arts and a committed champion of women’s rights. She is not an enabler of or an apologist for sexual and gender-based violence, as portrayed in the statement issued by the North Normal.”

She demanded “an immediate and unconditional retraction and apology” from the group “within 7 days of receipt of this notice including by but not limited to Twitter.

She added that the key members (each) of the group “must post a one minute video recording of an appropriately remorseful apology and retraction on their individual Twitter pages.

“This retraction and apology must also be published in two Nigerian newspapers: The Daily Trust and Punch newspapers,” the lawyers asked.

“In the event that the north normal group fails, declines or neglects to oblige with our demand, we shall proceed to immediately institute legal proceedings against you.”