ABUJA, Nigeria — A former campaign spokesman has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene in the ongoing legal challenges facing former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and consider granting him clemency.
The former Southeast spokesman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Denge Josef Onoh, made the appeal in an open letter addressed to Tinubu through the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, on September 24, 2026. Okay News reports that Denge Josef Onoh urged the President to prioritize reconciliation and statesmanship in addressing the legal situation of the former governor.
Nasir El-Rufai is facing 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, 2026, to rule on his no-case submission.
Denge Josef Onoh, who also serves as Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, stated that the former governor played a key role in the 2023 presidential election. 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.”
In the letter, Denge Josef Onoh acknowledged that Nasir El-Rufai could be “rigid, intensely opinionated, and notoriously difficult to align with,” but stated that those traits reflected his loyalty when committed to a cause. He cited historical examples of political reconciliation, including Julius Caesar’s policy of clemency and former President Shehu Shagari’s pardon of the late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in 1982.
Denge Josef Onoh invoked Sections 174 and 175 of the 1999 Constitution, noting that Section 174 empowers the Attorney-General of the Federation to discontinue criminal proceedings, while Section 175 provides for the presidential prerogative of mercy. He said, “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 concluded his letter by urging Tinubu to choose reconciliation over retribution, saying, “Please, let us get value out of this. It matters.”
