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The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has launched a strong defence of Defence Minister, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd), declaring that former Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has serious questions to answer over alleged killings, banditry and human rights abuses recorded in the state during his eight-year administration.
It also called for El-Rufai to be investigated and, if found culpable, prosecuted for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The forum, which described Southern Kaduna as part of the Middle Belt and said it was speaking as “witnesses” to events in the state, demanded an independent investigation into allegations that the former governor’s administration paid bandits or other armed groups.
The MBF made the explosive claims on Tuesday in Kaduna at a press conference addressed by its National Spokesman, Luka Binniyat, in solidarity with Musa following his controversial remarks about the former governor.
Musa had, during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on September 3, said: “We can never be happy with somebody who has deliberately planned for the killing of our people.”
The Defence Minister was referring to the El-Rufai administration.
The MBF said Musa’s remarks should not be dismissed as political rhetoric, insisting that the history of Kaduna under El-Rufai contained what it described as sufficient evidence to warrant serious scrutiny.
“We are here to say that the historical record of Kaduna State under El-Rufai provides enough evidence to support the claims of the retired four-star General,” Binniyat said.
The forum declared: “The MBF is not a mouthpiece for Gen. Musa. We are speaking as witnesses to what happened in Kaduna State during that period since Southern Kaduna is part of the Middle Belt.”
Rejecting arguments that El-Rufai merely inherited Kaduna’s history of communal and religious violence, the MBF acknowledged previous crises in the state but said the character of violence allegedly changed dramatically under the former governor.
“Yes, Kaduna had experienced occasional communal and religious conflicts before 2015,” the forum said, citing the Kasuwan Magani, Zangon Kataf and College of Education crises, as well as violence associated with the introduction of Sharia and the 2011 presidential election.
“But what changed under El-Rufai was deliberate targeting of peaceful vulnerable rural communities for annihilation which his actions and utterances encouraged,” it alleged.
According to the group, villages across Southern Kaduna were repeatedly attacked, homes destroyed, people killed and thousands displaced.
The MBF accused the former administration of taking what it described as a disturbing approach to attacks by arresting community leaders and traditional rulers from affected areas instead of going after alleged perpetrators.
It cited the 2016 attack on Goska community in Jema’a Local Government Area, where several people were reportedly killed and houses destroyed.
“Instead of going for the killers, El-Rufai arrested the District Head, Moses Barde and put him in prison,” the forum alleged.
It also cited the case of the B’Gwam Kurama, Dr Ishaku Sabo Damina, alleging that the traditional ruler was arrested after handing a suspected criminal over to the military.
The MBF said Damina was subsequently dethroned and died in 2021.
The group further alleged that 15 Atyap leaders, including an 82-year-old man, were arrested in 2021 over allegations that they had killed 706 cows in one night.
“After spending months in dingy police cells, they were released,” the MBF said, adding that at least three of the men died less than a month after their release.
The forum singled out the 2019 Kajuru violence as one of the clearest examples of what it described as the consequences of inflammatory official statements.
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It recalled that El-Rufai announced, shortly before the presidential election, that 66 Fulani people had been killed in Kajuru.
The MBF said the former governor subsequently increased the figure to 130 and later 133, while alleging that the then Kaduna Commissioner of Police, Abdulrahman Ahmad, questioned the figures and accused the governor of pre-empting police investigations.
The forum also accused the administration of arresting Adara leaders following the crisis.
Among those detained, it said, was Awemi Dio Maisamari, then president of the Adara Development Association.
The MBF said Maisamari and eight other Adara leaders subsequently secured a N900 million judgment against the government in 2024 after the Federal High Court in Kaduna ruled that their detention was unlawful.
“The violence did not stop,” the forum said, listing subsequent attacks in Karamai, Ungwan Barde, Inkirimi and Dogonnoma.
It alleged that dozens were killed and scores of houses destroyed.
“The Middle Belt Forum holds El-Rufai responsible for stoking the killing and encouraging the killers by taking no action whatsoever against them,” it said.
The MBF also reopened the controversial 2015 clash between the security forces and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in Zaria.
“When Gen. Musa said, ‘our people’, he meant every victim of El-Rufai’s tyranny that were residents or indigenes of Kaduna State,” the forum said.
“That includes the Shiite who were murdered in cold blood in December 2015. El-Rufai defended the massacre of the over 1,000 Shiites in Zaria.”
The MBF accused the former governor of weaponising curfews during periods of violence, alleging that the restrictions left law-abiding residents vulnerable while armed groups continued to operate.
It cited the 2016 Goska attack, the 2017 crisis in Zangon Kataf and the 2020 attacks on Atyap communities.
According to the forum, attacks continued despite curfews, with women, children and elderly people among the victims.
The MBF alleged that more than 200 Atyap women, children and infirm persons were killed during the period and that at least 26 villages were burnt and sacked.
The MBF also accused the former governor of inflicting economic hardship through mass dismissals of workers and demolition of homes and businesses.
It cited the dismissal of about 22,000 primary school teachers following a competency test and said the Nigeria Labour Congress had at one point put the number of affected workers at about 35,000.
The forum argued that the sackings and alleged failure to pay outstanding entitlements caused hardship among former workers and their dependants.
The MBF said the response to Musa’s allegations should be investigation, not intimidation.
“Gen. Christopher Musa has raised a salient point. The appropriate response is not intimidation, insults or political blackmail. The appropriate response is to investigate the issues and establish the truth.”
It added: “The people who lost their parents, children, homes, livelihoods, jobs and communities deserve nothing less.”
