Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufa’i says his government will forgive public officials who stole small amounts of money but arrest high profile thieves.
He dropped the hint at an inaugural lecture with the theme, “Building Rome in a Day with One Kobo, El-Rufai and the Challenges of 21st Century Kaduna”, held in Kaduna yesterday.
The lecture was delivered by Professor Pius Adesanmi, a professor of English and African Studies at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
“We will not condone acts of insincerity. We will insist on accountability. This is why we said we are not going to chase kobos but we will chase billions and millions of naira stolen from government.
“We will forgive the hundreds and a million stolen because those who stole such small funds are only hungry, we have to strike a balance. Those who stole thousands or a million are pickpockets and can be forgiven but we are only interested in armed robbers who stole billions and millions of naira.
“We intend to make Kaduna great again and I promise to do that. If we fail, it’s not because of lack of commitment or sincerity. We all know how things have gone bad in the state,” he said.
He added that his administration would not try to witch-hunt anybody, but would rather be interested in improving the lives of the people.
El’ Rufai added that the recent energy crisis was planned by the outgoing government.
“Just few days ago, Nigerian electricity dropped from 4,000 to just 50 megawatts. The system just stopped working because they are living office. These are man-made difficulties, it’s a way of punishing 160 million people because they voted them out of government,” he said.
Chairman of the inaugural lecture, retired General Martin Luther Agwai, said he was sacked from office as chairman of Sure-P funds by the outgoing government because he spoke about change of government in public.
“Nigerians voted massively for change, the same change I spoke about ýbefore the election and I lost my job, today I have no job”, he said

This is why we said we are not going to chase kobos but we will chase billions and millions of naira stolen from government.