At least 500 persons have signed a petition seeking to stop the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, from participating in the upcoming Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference over worsening violence in the state.
The NBA had listed the governor as one of the keynote speakers at the conference.
The petition was initiated by one Usani Odum on change.org.
It read: “The senseless killings in southern Kaduna must stop. The political correctness of Governor El-Rufai on national TV is diversionary. It is a reversal to have him speak to lawyers on security when Governor (Babagana) Zulum of Borno State a better person can do so.
“We may not be able to do anything to stop the killings, but we can stop the governor from speaking at the NBA-AGC to show our disapproval of the manner he has handled the situation!!”
Also, some lawyers have urged the NBA leadership to remove the governor from the list of speakers for the conference over his alleged poor handling of the Southern Kaduna violence.
In a letter titled: “Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai,” and addressed to the Chairman of the NBA Technical Committee on Conference Planning, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, the lawyers threatened to shun the conference if the leadership of the association insisted on having the governor at the conference.
About 100 people have been killed in ethno-religious violence in Southern Kaduna in the last few weeks.
Governor El-Rufai had on Sunday accused leaders from Southern Kaduna of fuelling the crisis for pecuniary gains.
