By Olaitan Ibrahim
Former governor Nasir El-Rufai said his former commissioner and friend, Mallam Jafaru Sani, has been arrested and remanded over alleged involvement in money laundering by a Magistrate in Kaduna without any police first information report or charges by the State Ministry of Justice.
EL- Rufai said this in a post on his Facebook page he tagged: ‘KADUNA UPDAT’ on Thursday evening.
In the post, the former governor alleged that Mallam Jafaru Sani was “abducted in Kaduna by Uba Sani’s kidnapping gang claiming to be the police, this afternoon!”
He added that the former Commissioner was subsequently arraigned before a Magistrates Court and remanded in prison for alleged money laundering.
El-Rufai, however, claimed that no evidence was provided at the court to link the former commissioner to the crime.
He also noted that money laundering is a federal crime.
Thus, rather than money laundering, El-Rufai claimed the former commissioner was arrested for joining him to decamp from the All Progressives Congress, APC to the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
The statement of the former Kaduna Governor who announced his defection from APC to the SDP last Monday partly reads: “Jafaru was remanded in prison custody by a magistrate without any police first information report or charges by the State Ministry of Justice.
“On inquiry, we have learned that Jafaru is being charged with money laundering – a federal offense that neither the State Judiciary or even the Police have jurisdiction to adjudicate or investigate.
“Jafaru’s real crime is his resignation from the APC, and joining the SDP – and having been proposed by me as the replacement ministerial nominee representing Kaduna State in August 2023.
“The tactics are similar to those used against another colleague of ours – Bashir Saidu when he was abducted on the 31st of December, 2024, and kept in captivity for 50 days before he was released on bail!
“The ignominious role of some henpecked and compromised magistrates and high court judges in the Kaduna State judiciary remains a source of great concern to us.
“We are watching and waiting as no condition is permanent, and there will be accountability for all decisions and actions, one day, soon.
“Allah Ya Isa! Allah ya Tsine ma su – @elrufai.”