Eshioromeh Sebastian in Abuja
Former Minister of Aviation and Ambassador-designate to Germany, Femi Fani-Kayode, has confirmed allegations that Nasir El-Rufai, during his tenure as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, harassed the late businessman High Chief Raymond Dokpesi and plotted to burn down the African Independent Television (AIT) headquarters.
In a detailed post on his X handle (formerly Twitter) shared on Sunday, Fani-Kayode corroborated an earlier report by Jackson Ude, publisher of Pointblank News, while adding fresh details about what he described as El-Rufai’s “draconian agenda” against the media house.
Fani-Kayode, who has been appointed as Ambassador to Germany but is yet to resume duty, stated that El-Rufai did not merely attempt to close down AIT and seize the land on which it was built but also illegally confiscated large swathes of surrounding land which AIT had paid for and had valid certificates of occupancy.
He further alleged that some of the station’s buildings were knocked down without due process and against court orders.
According to the Ambassador-designate, the situation took a more sinister turn when El-Rufai, after being directed to desist from harassing Dokpesi and AIT, resorted to planning to burn the entire facility down.
“Unfortunately for him and fortunately for AIT, the plan leaked to a number of OBJ insiders. It was opposed by Gen. Abdullahi Mohammed, OBJ’s Chief of Staff; Remi Oyo, OBJ’s Press Secretary; Nuhu Ribadu, the then Chairman of EFCC; Akin Osuntokun, the then Political Advisor to OBJ; Uba Sani, the then Senior Special Assistant to OBJ on Public Affairs; my goodself, the then Minister of Culture and Tourism; and a number of others because it was a cruel criminal act and because people’s lives would have been endangered”, Fani-Kayode wrote.
Fani-Kayode revealed that the intervention of these key officials ensured the plan was aborted, threatening to report the entire matter to President Obasanjo if El-Rufai proceeded.
“Had it not been that we intervened, ensured the plan was aborted and threatened to report the entire matter to OBJ, Nasir would have gone ahead, AIT would have been burnt to the ground, and the cause of the fire would have been attributed to an electrical fault,” he alleged.
Drawing a contrast between the Obasanjo administration’s approach to media criticism and what he termed El-Rufai’s intentions, Fani-Kayode noted that during OBJ’s time, journalists were not locked up, suppressed, or killed, but rather engaged through robust media debates.
He cited the example of the late Sam Nda-Isaiah, founder and publisher of Leadership Newspaper, describing him as probably the most virulent critic of Obasanjo.
“Rather than lock him up, plan to kill him or burn down his newspaper house, we engaged him in healthy and oftentimes volatile debate. If El-Rufai had had his way, we would not have left it at that,” Fani-Kayode stated.
The Ambassador-designate linked these historical allegations to his concerns about El-Rufai’s recent claims regarding chemical weapons. He expressed fear that El-Rufai and his associates may be planning a “deadly false flag attack” in which many would be killed, which they would then blame on the Federal Government.
“A man that can conspire to burn down the nation’s top television station, as AIT was at the time, simply because it opposed the Government he served and because he coveted the land that it was built on, is capable of anything,” Fani-Kayode warned.
He called for a thorough investigation into the matter, stating: “I may be wrong, but this must be looked into and we must not take any chances.”
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