El-Rufai Has A Penchant For Recreating Stories, Everything He Said Is Untrue —Maikori Breaks Silence

The long-running dispute between Audu Maikori and former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has resurfaced, drawing renewed attention to the 2017 Southern Kaduna crisis and the legal battle that followed.

The disagreement traces back to violence in Southern Kaduna in 2017. At the time, Maikori, founder of Chocolate City Entertainment Group, was arrested over a tweet claiming that five journalism students had been killed at the College of Education in the area.

The Kaduna State Government disputed the claim, stating that the institution did not operate a journalism programme. According to El-Rufai, who was governor at the time, he requested a retraction, which he said did not come.

Maikori was subsequently arrested and arraigned before a court. However, both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal later ruled that his arrest and detention were unlawful. Speaking on Arise Television on Monday, February 16, 2026, Maikori responded to El-Rufai’s recent remarks and rejected suggestions that his position was driven by personal grievance.

Asked whether he was defending a constitutional principle or settling a personal score, he replied, “Not personal. It is about setting the record straight and the facts straight. Governor, ex-governor El Rufai has a penchant for recreating stories. Everything that he said is untrue. And I think it’s important for the posterity to set the record straight.”

He explained that once he discovered the information in the tweet was false, he took immediate action.

“What happened was the tweet, the minute I found the tweet was wrong, was false, was I went to the first police station available, which was in Lekki, with my driver, wrote a statement. The driver actually wrote a confession that he lied. And he did that to obtain money from me to for whatever purpose,” he said.

Maikori added, “The first phone call I made was to the attorney general of Kaduna State. Her name is Amina Sijuade. And I said, I just discovered that my driver lied to me. He’s in the police station. He’s in full custody. I’m going to write a full retraction. That retraction was written on the 4th of February, 2017.”

When asked if the retraction was published, he responded, “Very well published. You can Google it. You’ll find it. Very detailed. I apologize not only to the governor, but to every other person involved. But I made, there was a proviso, though. I said that that does not obviate the other incidences of people being killed.”

Confirming the inaccuracy of his earlier post, he said, “Yes. And that’s what integrity is all about. When you do something wrong, if you have the boldness to say it, then you should have the boldness to retract it…. Discover More News