Sharia council knocks CAN over criticism of Kaduna ex-gov, El-Rufai’s comments

• Kure, co-chair of Kaduna peace commission resigns
• Nigerians living in UK want former gov investigated

Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) has defended former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, for airing his views on political happenings in the state and the country.

Reacting in a statement, at the weekend, the council, through its state secretary, AbdurRahman Hassan, said: “For the past one week, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, has been wagging tongues, accusing the former governor.

“During the campaigns of the just concluded elections in this country, where was CAN, when majority of pastors were making unguarded utterances, which, but for the help of Allah, Nigeria would have been history.

“Where was CAN, when a pastor stood on the pulpit with an AK-47 in Abuja? Where was CAN when some Christian clergies were making prophecies of doom for this country?

“The Muslim Ummah has been tolerant enough. If not, there is no way a Muslim-dominated state, like Taraba, will be governed by a Christian. If Plateau State with a population of over 35 per cent Muslims was denied the deputy governor slot, why should Kaduna State with Muslim population of close to 75 per cent not have a Muslim-Muslim ticket?

“CAN should better understand that democracy is a game of numbers, and that was what played out during the just concluded presidential elections.”

“Let the politicised CAN understand that peace is only achieved when there is justice and adherence to democratic norm, which is relative to demographic realities.”

This came as the co-chairman of Kaduna State Peace Commission (KSPC), Emmanuel Nuhu Kure, tendered his resignation.

Kure, who is also Chairman of Southern Kaduna Christian Leaders Association (SKCLA), said belonging to the commission after El-Rufai was reportedly seen in a video promoting disunity and religious disharmony, would be deceitful.

In a letter, dated April 8, 2023, and addressed to the executive vice chairman of the commission, Kure hinged his decision on a “viral video statement credited to the now defunct governor of Kaduna State, (which he is yet to openly deny), in which he explained why his government discriminated against one side…and his wish that the Muslim-Muslim ticket and religion be entrenched…”

Copies of the letter were made available to journalists in Kaduna yesterday.

He said: “I, hereby, tender my resignation as both co-chair and member of this laudable committee because it is clear that we were set up to serve a diversionary interest and we were not meant to succeed. This may explain why the governor never executed any of our suggestions from our several parleys with him.”

Kure explained: “I cannot, in good conscience, serve in a committee that will promote disharmony and further disintegration of our great nation. More so, it is clear that this explains why he arbitrarily proscribed the Atyap Development Association, to send warning to other associations in Southern Kaduna that the same fate awaits them, if they try to bring the plight of Southern Kaduna people to the rest of the world.”

He added: “My prayer is that the current government will do things to heal the wounds that this grave statement has brought to Southern Kaduna people and its inappropriate message to all Christians in Nigeria.

“I pray that the Federal Government will find a way of discountenancing his views, to maintain peace and mutual trust between religions in the country.”

Meanwhile, a coalition of Nigerians living in the United Kingdom condemned the utterance by El-Rufai.

In a statement, yesterday, the coordinator of the coalition, Dr. Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor Olorogun, said: “We are calling on the International Criminal Court to arrest and prosecute El-Rufai over charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Southern Kaduna, the Middle-Belt and other parts of the country.”

The coalition said the statement was a confirmation of remote and immediate causes of butcheries and violence targeted at defenseless Christians and their properties in Nigeria, especially in Southern Kaduna and the Middle-Belt.”