The former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday, fired back at Reno Omokri, the former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who had accused him of being frustrated for not being appointed a minister by President Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai described Omokri as “a political mercenary retained by any paying person or government.”
The former governor also brought up an earlier controversy, referencing a case where Omokri was accused of identity theft.
An American woman had alleged that Omokri used her son’s name, Wendell Simlin, in a failed attempt to link the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Lamido Sanusi, to the terrorist group Boko Haram.
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Omokri had tweeted on Sunday, “Nasir el-Rufai is just being clever by half in expressing his frustration at not being made a minister by attacking the funding of a rail project in Lagos by the Federal Government. Under Buhari, Nigeria took out a $2 billion loan to build a railway in Niger Republic. Did el-Rufai complain, then?
“Not at all! Today, that same Niger is now hostile towards Nigeria. If we can build a railway worth $2 billion (which was 10% of the Niger Republic’s GDP at then) for a foreign country, simply because General Buhari’s father was from the Niger Republic, why shouldn’t the Federal Government contribute towards building a railway in Lagos State?
“After all, 8% of Nigeria’s population lives in Lagos, while 35% of our GDP comes from Lagos, which contributes ₦44.17 trillion to our economy. How much does Niger Republic contribute to our GDP? Did the Federal Government under Jonathan not also spend $1.2 billion building the Abuja-Kaduna superfast 187-kilometre railway?”
In response, El-Rufai posted images on X showing Omokri protesting against Tinubu’s election and making disparaging comments about him.
El-Rufai wrote, “The interesting lifecycle of Wendell Simlin, also sometimes retained as a political mercenary by any person or government that can pay.”
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