El-Rufai warns ‘Villa Cabal’ opposing Tinubu’s presidency, insists Naira redesign a plot to incite voters against the Party

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has sent a strong warning to those he believes are working against the chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu

The Governor had earlier disclosed that some elements in the Villa are working to ensure Tinubu loses the forthcoming general election.

In a yet-to-be-fully-released interview with BBC Hausa, El-Rufai warned the cabal saying if they do not behave like elders they would be disrespected.

“Respecting people is not fear, I swear we don’t fear anyone in this country, so we are not fearful, we are respectful but if you show us you are not an elder, I swear we will fight you,” he said.

Earlier, during his interview with Channels TV he said some people close to the president are plotting to sabotage the APC and Tinubu’s victory in the coming election because their favorite candidate did not emerge as the party’s presidential candidate.

According to the governor, the saboteurs, who are not members of the ruling party are exploiting the president’s goodwill for their selfish ends.

“I believe there are elements in the villa who want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries. “

“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right,” the Kaduna State Governor had said.

The governor’s claim was later amplified by the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, who is in support of Tinubu’s presidential ambition as she shared the clip of El-Rufai’s allegation against the villa cabal on her social media page.

“We’re convinced that there are some elements in the (Presidential) Villa that want APC to lose the elections. I didn’t say FG. I don’t understand why the FG responded. Those in the villa know themselves and even Lai Mohammed knows and with all due respect I don’t see why the FG is responding,” El-Rufai said.

“I think it’s inappropriate as a minister of the federal republic to respond to a statement directed at individuals rather than the institution,” he replied Lai Mohammed.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has insisted that “elements within the Villa” initiated the redesign of the naira to target the governing All Progressives Congress and incite the electorate to vote against the party.

Speaking on ARISE NEWS Prime Time on Thursday, El-Rufai described those responsible as “parasites” who are not APC members but taking advantage of their relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari to pursue their own agenda.

According to El-Rufai, the elements are pushing ad-hoc policies that are not well thought out and devoid of widespread consultations “to incite the voters to vote against the APC at all levels.”

”These policies are insensitive and aimed at punishing people. They (the people) will take it out on us and our candidates at all levels who are innocent bystanders in all this.

“This is not an APC policy. It was never in our manifesto,” he said.

El-Rufai said he won’t reveal who the elements are but “those of us around Abuja know them.”

He continued, “We can name and shame them. We prefer to do that after we’ve won the election.

“These same people wanted President Buhari to be succeeded by someone else. And that person did not win the election. That someone else is not Vice President Osinbajo.

El-Rufai went further to imply that the chosen candidate of the presidential villa cabal at the APC primaries was a northerner.

“These elements are not even in the APC. They are parasites. But they are influential because they are around the President all the time. Some of us are influential too but I have a state to govern, I’m not going to sit with the President in the Villa from morning till night.”

El-Rufai is optimistic about the governing party’s chances in the forthcoming elections despite the challenges. “The APC is united. Our governors are united and we are working very hard to deliver Asiwaju as the president in spite of their machinations.

“We’re given too much importance to a handful of cowards. They are cowards because they have never contested elections. They’re machinations and calculations will fail.”

He debunked some of the polls conducted by both local and international pollsters based on the sample size and believes that though the forthcoming elections will be tight, the APC will win, going by their own independently conducted survey.

“It’s not going to be a landslide unlike some previous elections,” he said.