The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa, rtd, has accused former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, of taking actions that deepened divisions and contributed to insecurity in the state during his administration.
Musa made the allegations on Thursday, September 3, 2026, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The former Defence Minister described the situation in Kaduna during El-Rufai’s tenure as “toxic”, alleging that the former governor divided the state to the extent that residents from Southern Kaduna could not freely move to the northern part of the state and vice versa.
“El-Rufai did a lot of terrible things in Kaduna State. He divided the state into two. In that, if you are from the south, you cannot go to the north to live. Those from the north were moving to the south,” Musa said.
Musa also alleged that residents of Southern Kaduna remained unhappy with El-Rufai over the killings recorded in the area during his administration.
During the interview, he was asked whether the people of Southern Kaduna were still unhappy with the former governor. Musa responded: “If there is anything worse than unhappy. We can never be happy with somebody who has deliberately planned for the killing of our people.”
The minister further alleged that El-Rufai had openly spoken about paying bandits and accused him of using his position to target individuals with whom he had disagreements.
“He told us he paid bandits. He told us he did this; he did that. He didn’t hide it,” Musa alleged.
He also accused the former governor of ordering the demolition of houses belonging to people with whom he had personal disagreements.
Musa, however, said he did not consider El-Rufai an enemy but described him as “misguided”.
The Defence Minister said his comments were not motivated by the fact that he is from Kaduna, stressing that he was speaking as a Nigerian concerned about the unity of the country.
He called on politicians to stop exploiting religious and ethnic differences and instead promote unity among Nigerians.
El-Rufai, who governed Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023, has yet to publicly respond to the allegations contained in Musa’s latest remarks.
Defence Minister accuses El-Rufai of planning Southern Kaduna massacres