El-Rufai Decries Jonathan's Attack on His Person

By John Shiklam in Kaduna

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has decried the attack on his person by former President Goodluck Jonathan over the sharing of ecological funds.

The governor had at a briefing with State House correspondents after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja last Thursday, alleged that states governed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties that were sympathetic to the PDP-led federal government were favoured in the distribution of the fund in 2013.

The committee, according to the governor, Â “established beyond all doubts that in 2013, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan gave N2 billion to certain states of the federation but excluded other states”.

But the former president had in a reaction through Ikechukwu Eze, his media aide, last Friday dismissed the allegations, describing el-RufaiÂ as a liar, adding thatÂ

the governor had a knack for lying which former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his former principal, confirmed.

â€œThe fact remains that the ecological fund is a specialised fund with certain constitutional requirements which must be met before a state can access the funds. Every state benefitted from the fund under President Jonathan who bent over backwards to accommodate states that had difficulty meeting the criteria for accessing the fund,” Eze had said.Â

But at a news conference on Tuesday in Kaduna, Samuel Aruwan, spokesman to el-Rufai, said it was unfortunate that the former president has responded to the revelations by launching a personal attack on the governor.

Details later…