CEDRA Want El-Rufai to Sack Aide With Criminal Background Within 48 Hours
CEDRA Want El-Rufai to Sack Aide With Criminal Background Within 48 Hours
By ALEX UANGBAOJE
DR. JOHN DANFULANI, Chairman Board of Trustees and Executive Director of
Centrum Initiative For Development and Fundamental Rights Initiative (CEDRA), has given Kaduna State governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai forty eight ultimatum to sack Jimmy Lawal his Special Adviser on Investments Promotion or else his organisation will be forced to take action against him.
He gave the charge yesterday during the presentation of CEDRA assessment of the first hundred days of the El-Rufai’s administration to the media.
Danfulani said “Mr. Lawal is a character enmeshed in multiple scandals in private sector and also reported by Saharareporter as a wanted man in the United States of America for fraud related offences.
According to him, ”as long as Lawal is in the loop, the government of El-Rufai will continue to suffer moral deficiency and lack of trust from the people.
“If El-Rufai’s claim of running a transparent, sensitive, responsive and credible government is true, he should immediately sack Mr. Jimmy Lawal so that he can go clear himself of multifaceted allegations hanging on his neck.
“If indeed Mr. Lawal is wanted in the US, what happens if the State has business with any American firm or organisation and the Special Adviser on Investments Promotion is needed to do some paperwork, how will be there?
“If governor El-Rufai insists on keeping a man that a Google search of his name will give thousands of links carrying scandalous stories in his government, then there is more than meet the eye in the entire affairs.
”CEDRA believes that El-rufai’i’s appointments and retirement so far did not put ethno-religious composition of the State into consideration. Of the 13 commissioners appointed, only four are Christians and the remaining 9 are Moslems. Of the remaining Permanent Secretaries in the State, only three are Christians. Of the most senior and key officers of his administration like Chief of Staff, Principal Private Secretary (PPS) and Secretary to the State Government (SSG), none is a Christian and from Southern Kaduna.
“This lopsidedness in his appointment is brewing hatred and further polarizing a very volatile State like Kaduna that is known for its ethno-religious skirmishes. Hums in all the political parlances of Southern Kaduna and Christian community suggest that irredentism and bigotry they accused him of, is gradually unfolding.
