Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has escalated a simmering political feud with Defence Minister General Christopher Musa (retd.) into a formal legal battle, with his lawyers demanding ₦10 billion in compensation over remarks the retired general made on national television.
The dispute traces back to Musa’s appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on September 3, 2026, where the minister discussed insecurity in Kaduna State and, according to El-Rufai’s lawyers, accused the former governor of deliberately planning the killing of people in Southern Kaduna and paying bandits.
The lawyers further alleged that Musa claimed the former governor ordered the demolition of houses and used the exercise against political opponents.
Four days later, on September 7, El-Rufai’s legal team, the Chambers of Ubong Akpan, fired off a formal letter of claim to the minister at the Federal Ministry of Defence in Abuja.
The letter was described by the lawyers as a formal letter of claim intended to set out their client’s complaint and allow Musa to remedy the alleged harm before further legal proceedings, and it was acknowledged by the Ministry of Defence the same day it was sent.
In the letter, El-Rufai’s solicitors did not mince words. They argued the allegations portrayed El-Rufai as a criminal, murderer, and sponsor of banditry and are demanding a public retraction, an unreserved apology, and ₦10 billion in damages for reputational harm.
The letter also flagged that the broadcast remains accessible via terrestrial and satellite television as well as online streaming platforms, effectively keeping the alleged defamation in continuous circulation.
El-Rufai’s team has given Musa a tight window to respond in 24 hours to acknowledge the letter and seven days to reply in full or comply with the demands. Should the matter go unresolved, El-Rufai’s camp has made clear it will pursue legal remedies, with reports suggesting the threatened suit could seek the full ₦10 billion in compensation, alongside apologies published in two national newspapers.
The letter has already stirred wider reaction beyond the two principals. The Middle Belt Forum has urged Musa to ignore the demand, saying it possesses sufficient evidence to substantiate claims that El-Rufai was linked to killings in Southern Kaduna during his tenure as governor.
The intervention signals the dispute is unlikely to stay confined to a courtroom matter; it touches on unresolved grievances from El-Rufai’s 2015–2023 tenure, a period marked by communal violence in Southern Kaduna, mass demolitions in the state capital, and persistent allegations that El-Rufai has denied that his administration negotiated with or paid bandits operating in the state.
As of the time of these reports, General Musa had not issued a public response, and his media aide reportedly did not respond to requests for comment.
With the seven-day deadline running from September 7, attention now turns to whether the Ministry of Defence issues a retraction, mounts a substantive defence of Musa’s remarks, or allows the matter to proceed toward formal defamation proceedings, a prospect that would pit a sitting service chief-turned-minister against a former two-term governor in a case likely to draw significant public and political attention in Abuja and beyond.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai has issued a ₦10 billion legal threat against Defence Minister General Christopher Musa over claims made on Channels Television that El-Rufai planned killings in Southern Kaduna and paid bandits.
His lawyers have given Musa seven days to retract and apologize or face a defamation suit, and with groups like the Middle Belt Forum already urging Musa to stand by his claims, this is shaping up to be less a private legal spat than a fresh flashpoint in Nigeria’s unresolved reckoning with the Southern Kaduna violence.
