NBA Saga: El-Rufai's crimes began since he was FCT Minister — Falana

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has thrown his weight behind the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)'s decision to withdraw the invitation of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, as one of its speakers at its 60th annual conference, following a petition from lawyers who accused the governor of human rights violation and also his inability to stop kiIIings in Southern Kaduna.



The lawyers also referenced many controversial utterances of the governor, including a threat during the run- up to the general elections in 2019 that any foreigner that interfered in the poll would leave Nigeria in body bags.

Falana in his reaction to NBA's decision to exclude El-Rufai, said El-Rufai has a penchant of disobeying court orders right from when he was a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
He explained that El-Rufai’s action was inconsistent with the rules of NBA.

The activist lawyer stated this in a letter to the NBA’s Technical Committee, conference planning committee.


Falana’s letter reads partly: “You will agree with us that Mallam El-Rufai’s penchant for disobeying court orders is inconsistent with the aims and objects of the Nigerian Bar Association which includes promotion of rule of law.”

El-Rufai was billed to be one of the speakers at the NBA Conference scheduled for August 26 – 29, 2020.

Meanwhile, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has described the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA’s decision to withdraw its invitation to Governor Nasir El-Rufai over Southern Kaduna crisis as a declaration of war.




“NBA yesterday dropped Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State from the list of speakers at its Virtual AGC which is billed to start on 26th August, 2020. It is high level prejudice. The NBA as a group of learned literati should know better. It is parochial, myopic and jejune.

“The fact that NBA took the ill-advised step on account of a petition written by a group, Open Bar Initiative whose main fear is expressed as ‘One can be sure that he will also use the given platform to advance his conflated narrative, designed to deceive and confuse the nation on the real causes of the killings’ exposes NBA’s impatience, intolerance and self-conceit.


“Is it not better to hear him out than to lock him out? Is it not better to jaw-jaw than to war-war? The departure of the ambassador, they say, is the beginning of war.

“By dropping El-Rufai, NBA has declared war on the other side in the Southern Kaduna crisis. By so doing, it lost a golden chance to be part of the solution to the conflict. The NBA has elected to be part of the problem," the group has said in a statement through its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.