Olusegun Olanrewaju
Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday took on the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, describing him as an interloper for responding to his claims that cabals in Aso Rock were working against the presidential bid of the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) Bola Tinubu.

According to el-Rufai, Mohammed is nothing but a busybody for having the temerity to respond to his revelation that an Aso Rock cabal is behind the plan to make the ruling party’s standard bearer in the February 25 presidential election, Bola Tinubu, fail in his attempt to replace President Muhammadu Buhari in office.

In a swift reaction on Wednesday, the Minister of Information debunked the allegation by el-Rufai that some elements in the Presidency were working against the APC presidential candidate, Tinubu.

Mohammed insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring that the forthcoming elections in the country are free, fair, and credible and will not favour any presidential candidate.

But the governor, who spoke on an Arise Television interview programme yesterday, said those he referred to know themselves, and that it was wrong for a federal minister of Mohammed’s standing to be responding on his charge since he did not point accusing fingers at the doorsteps of the government, but rather, a group of anti-Tinubu forces, “whose preferred candidate lost at the APC primary”.

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el-Rufai had drawn the first blood on Wednesday when he raised a high-profile charge that some unnamed ‘elements’ in the presidency were plotting against the APC and Tinubu by playing on the soft spot of President Buhari romance with the currency change albatross currently rocking the country.

The Kaduna State governor has also distanced himself and his colleague APC governors from the currency change, insisting that the policy is that of the president and the cabals in Aso Rock.

He also predicted a repeat of the EndSARS protest if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fails to review the directive given to the banks to dispense minimal amounts across the counter.

Though the often controversial governor failed to name the cabals, he refused but insisted that they would be revealed and shamed after the election.

Speaking on Channels Television on Wednesday, the governor alleged that some elements in Presidential Villa are spearheading plots for the APC to lose the election because their preferred aspirant did not win the party’s presidential ticket.

The claim by el-Rufai comes barely a week after Tinubu alleged that the petrol queues and scarcity of Naira notes due to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cash swap initiatives were plots against the presidential candidates’ ambition.