El-Rufai a victim of betrayal he once inflicted on Amaechi – Ndume

Ndume

Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South, has said that former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, is the architect of his current political misfortunes.

Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Ndume admitted that he sometimes feels tempted to gloat over the fallout between El-Rufai and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Ndume, who served as the Director-General of the Rotimi Amaechi Presidential Campaign, recalled that El-Rufai was initially aligned with Amaechi’s camp ahead of the APC primary but later switched allegiance to Tinubu following the latter’s visit to Kaduna.

He recounted how El-Rufai had publicly pledged to work with Amaechi during a consultation visit, only to later turn his back on the former Rivers governor.

He said, “El-Rufai was supposed to be on our side but somehow, he moved over. And I think these are part of the things that are annoying or frustrating him.

“He was on our side. Amaechi’s side. Before Tinubu was nominated, he made up his mind to support Tinubu, and Tinubu, as he rightly said, said that he should not leave and that he should come on board, join the government.“So since then, I’ve not been that [close to El-Rufai] because he abandoned our group.

“He was on our side but went to support Tinubu fully. You know, he really mobilized. He did a lot of things.

“Tinubu asked him to join the government but somehow, up till now, I don’t understand what happened between El-Rufai and Tinubu, but that is not my business.“But sometimes, I’ll say, ‘okay o, you did that to us, it’s payback to yourself’. But, I cannot understand, I was the Chief Whip. “El-Rufai came to the chamber for ministerial screening and we almost like told him to take a bow and go…”The senator said after his victory, Tinubu nominated El-Rufai for a ministerial appointment but the former Kaduna State governor was rejected.