The wife of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Asia Mohammad Ahmad, has moved to end speculation that Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, was among those her husband referred to in his recent remarks about friends and associates who had remained silent during his present circumstances.
Ahmad said Sanusi remained with the family and urged the public to stop linking the Emir to El-Rufai’s statement.
She made the clarification in a post on her verified Facebook page on Saturday, responding to a column by Professor Farooq Kperogi titled, “Sanusi and the Betrayal of El-Rufai.”
Kperogi had examined whether Sanusi could have been among the people El-Rufai referred to in a September 23 statement.
In that statement, the former governor spoke about friends, family members and associates whom he had previously supported but who had chosen to remain silent in his current circumstances.
El-Rufai did not name anyone, but said the experience had given him an opportunity to reassess some relationships.
Kperogi linked the remarks to the longstanding relationship between El-Rufai and Sanusi, particularly the former governor’s support for Sanusi following his removal as Emir of Kano in 2020.
Shortly after Sanusi’s dethronement, El-Rufai appointed him Vice Chairman of the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency board and Chancellor of Kaduna State University.
El-Rufai also visited Sanusi in Awe, Nasarawa State, where the former Emir had been taken after his removal from the throne.
Those events formed part of the basis for Kperogi’s suggestion that Sanusi could have been among the people referenced by El-Rufai.
However, Kperogi also acknowledged that the former governor had not identified anyone and that any attempt to establish the identity of the people mentioned remained an inference.
Ahmad’s intervention has now directly rejected the suggestion concerning Sanusi.
She said people should stop drawing conclusions about the Emir from El-Rufai’s remarks, stressing that Sanusi remained with the family.
El-Rufai is currently in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over charges arising from investigations into his administration. He has denied wrongdoing.
Neither El-Rufai’s original statement nor Ahmad’s clarification identified the individuals the former governor may have had in mind.
The latest clarification, however, removes Sanusi from the speculation, at least according to El-Rufai’s family, and places the focus back on the unidentified relationships referenced in the former governor’s statement.
