7,000 sign petition asking EU, UK to bar El-Rufai

About 7,000 people have endorsed a petition for the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) to place a visa restriction on Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State.

The petition is addressed to the UK Parliament, the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson; Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.

According to The PUNCH, the petition on Change.Org had hit 7,000 as of 11.15 am on Wednesday.

The petition initiated by a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, comes a day after the United States extended the visa ban it placed on the governor in 2010, and several other chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to Omokri, El-rufai is a threat to peace and safety in Nigeria. He also recalled how the governor, on December 3, 2016, confessed that he paid herdsmen who have been killing innocent people.

“Since that admission, there has been an intense escalation of the killings of mostly Christians in Kaduna, and on August 25, 2020, suspected herdsmen abducted seven schoolchildren and their teacher from Prince Academy, in Kaduna. They have not been seen or heard of since then,” Omokri said.

The petition further read, “On February 6, 2019, he threatened foreign observers, including observers from the EU and UK with death, warning that they would return in body bags should they intervene in Nigeria.

“On July 15, 2012, Nasir El-Rufai said, and I quote ‘We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes.’ This threat has been carried out in Southern Kaduna where there is an ongoing genocide of Christians under el-Rufai’s watch.”

He also said that on August 23, 2019, the governor charged the Anglican Bishop of Zaria province of Kaduna, Abiodun Ogunyemi, for defamation.

“On April 24, 2019, another of his sons, Bashir el-Rufai, described the pogrom against Igbos as sweet.

“It is for this reason that Nigerian citizens call on the government of the United Kingdom and the European Union Presidency to follow the lead of the United States and place a visa ban on Nasir El-Rufai, who is scheming to become Nigeria’s President, to prevent a Rwandan style genocide in Nigeria,” he said.