El-Rufai: Onoh appeals to Tinubu for clemency

n n

Nasir El-Rufai

n

ABUJA — Former Southeast spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Denge.Josef Onoh, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene in the legal challenges facing former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and consider granting him clemency.

n

Onoh, who is also Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, made the appeal in an open letter dated September 24, 2026, addressed to Tinubu through the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.

n

In the letter titled, “An Appeal for Compassion and Royal Intervention in the Plight of Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai,” Onoh urged the President to prioritise reconciliation and statesmanship in dealing with the former governor’s situation.

n

El-Rufai is currently facing ongoing legal proceedings, including a case brought by the Department of State Services over alleged unlawful interception of telephone communications. The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed October 26 to rule on his no-case submission.

n

Onoh argued that El-Rufai’s contributions to the APC and the 2023 presidential campaign should not be forgotten, recalling that he served as a key figure in the campaign that produced Tinubu as president.

n

He said: “We cannot quickly erase from our memories the immense, foundational role Mallam El-Rufai played in ensuring the victory of the All Progressives Congress and your historic election in 2023.”

n

Onoh acknowledged that El-Rufai could be difficult to work with, describing him as “rigid, intensely opinionated, and notoriously difficult to align with,” but said those qualities had also reflected his loyalty when committed to a cause or friendship.

n

He expressed concern that some of El-Rufai’s friends and associates had allegedly distanced themselves from him because of political considerations.

n

Onoh said he was unwilling to remain silent because of political pressure, adding that he continued to regard El-Rufai as a friend whose contributions to nation-building deserved recognition.

n

He urged Tinubu to draw lessons from historical examples of political reconciliation, citing Julius Caesar’s policy of clemency towards political opponents and former President Shehu Shagari’s pardon of the late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in 1982.

n

According to Onoh, such actions demonstrated that political leadership could use mercy and reconciliation to heal divisions.

n

He also invoked Sections 174 and 175 of the 1999 Constitution, arguing that the provisions provide constitutional mechanisms for dealing with criminal proceedings and punishment.

n

Section 174 empowers the Attorney-General of the Federation to discontinue criminal proceedings before judgment, subject to considerations including public interest and the interests of justice, while Section 175 provides for the President’s prerogative of mercy in specified circumstances.

n

Onoh said Tinubu’s intervention in El-Rufai’s case “would not be an act of weakness” but a demonstration of statesmanship and political maturity.

n

“Leaving a former ally and a key architect of our current democratic dispensation to languish in confinement risks deepening political fractures at a time when our country desperately needs structural stability and unity,” he said.

n

He appealed to Tinubu to choose what he described as “reconciliation over retribution” and “compassion over confinement.”

n

Onoh concluded by urging the President to ensure that the situation became an opportunity for national healing rather than further political division. “Please, let us get value out of this. It matters,” he said.

n n