Labour Party (LP) vice presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has demanded that former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai be formally questioned over his explosive claim that the Federal Government has been paying allowances to bandits.
In a televised interview, Baba-Ahmed described the allegation as too weighty to be brushed aside. He criticised the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) for dismissing El-Rufai’s comments, stressing that such a matter called for serious investigation.
“If the so-called office of the National Security Adviser would take this statement with levity, then Nuhu Ribadu was never a policeman; he is not a qualified lawyer; he should not be in that office,” Baba-Ahmed said, adding that El-Rufai must provide statements to law enforcement and judicial authorities.
El-Rufai, while speaking on Sunday Politics on August 31, 2025, alleged that both the Federal Government and Kaduna State had been paying bandits a monthly allowance and even sending them food under what he described as a misguided “non-kinetic” approach to tackling insecurity. He branded the policy a “kiss-the-bandits strategy.”
“What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance, or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It’s nonsense; we’re empowering bandits. It’s not the government of Kaduna State; it’s a national policy driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and Kaduna is part of it,” El-Rufai declared.
Although both the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Kaduna State Government have dismissed the allegations as baseless, Baba-Ahmed insisted that mere denials were not enough.
He argued that the claims were of national importance and required accountability.
“A national policy is the official position of a government — a constitutional declaration of what it intends to legally pursue.
Such policies are made public, celebrated, and broadcast to the whole world. If Nasir has made such a claim, then it must be addressed with the seriousness it deserves,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
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