Fresh trouble as Petition asking EU, UK to place travel ban on El-Rufai gathers 20,491 signatures

The petitioners are claiming that they signed because of the poor handling of Southern Kaduna crisis by El-Rufai and other issues.

The petition emanated from Reno Omokri, former Special Assistant on New Media to former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The petition which kicked off on Wednesday is being driven by Omokri at Change.org. As at yesterday, over 10,000 have signed the petition and it moved to 20,491 signatures on Thursday morning and is still expected to grow further.

Reason adduced by Omokri in putting up the petition was that El-Rufai is allegedly promoting promoting genocide, religious and political intolerance.

"Nasir El-Rufai is a threat to the peace and security of Nigeria for many reasons chief of which are that: On December 3, 2016, he admitted that he paid killer herdsmen who killed Nigerian citizens, because they were of the same ethnicity as him.

"Since that admission, there has been an intense escalation of the killings of mostly Christians in Kaduna, and on August 25, 2020, suspected herdsmen abducted seven school children and their teacher from Prince Academy, in Kaduna. They have not been seen or heard of since then,ÔÇØ he said.

Omokri alleged that on September 8, 2014, El-Rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.

He added that on January 27, 2013, he insulted the Lord Jesus Christ on Twitter and that on February 6, 2019, he threatened foreign observers, including observers from the EU and UK with death, warning that they would return in "body bagsÔÇØ, should they intervene in Nigeria.

Omokri said on August 23, 2019, El-Rufai charged the Anglican Bishop of Zaria province of Kaduna, Abiodun Ogunyemi, for defamation.

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