Tinubu, El-Rufai hold parley after failed senate screeningÂ

President Bola Tinubu and ministerial nominee, Nasir El-Rufai, met on Wednesday at the presidential villa, Abuja.

El-Rufai, who was governor of Kaduna for eight years, visited the President Tinubu along with fellow nominee, ex-governor Nyesom Wike.

El-Rufai’s visit comes few days after the Senate decided to pend his confirmation for a ministerial role, citing security reports against him. The former governor is yet to make a public statement on the matter.

TheCornet had reported how Senate President Godswill Akpabio shielded El-Rufai from answering to Senator Sunday Karimi, who informed his colleagues of a petition standing against El-Rufai’s nomination for the position.

Akpabio at the screening told Senator Karimi that the parliament had no power to investigate petitions and would rather the security agencies handled it.

Akpabio’s comment was widely seen as helping El-Rufai deflect allegations believed to have been made against him, especially on his handling of the incessant attacks and killings in Southern Kaduna by suspected Fulani herders while he was governor.

The Southern Kaduna indigene-settler crisis has persisted for many decades. Prior to his becoming a governor in 2015, El-Rufai had served as a minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the administration, led by former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Even then, El-Rufai’s clearance by the Senate was sauteed in controversy, after scandalising the legislators for allegedly demanding a bribe.

Apart from El-Rufai, Stella Okotete and Senator Abubakar Dalandi, both nominees representing Delta, and Taraba States. The Senate cleared 45 others.