A former senator who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani, has claimed that the erstwhile governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, was denied a ministerial position in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet because of his toxicity.

Sani, in a statement on Monday, said the former governor failed in the area of security in his eight years as governor.

He described El-Rufai’s recent political statements as toxic, insisting that the former governor lacked the moral ground to criticise Tinubu’s administration.

He argued that El-Rufai was one of the individuals who promoted hunger and insecurity in the country.

Referring to the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Sani said, “The government which El-Rufai and Amaechi served were the precipitators and enablers of hunger and insecurity.

“El-Rufai is the patriarch of banditry and the godfather of insecurity in Northern Nigeria.

“He was too toxic to work in Tinubu’s administration; hence, he suffered exclusion, the basis for which he is launching verbal attacks against the current administration.

“El-Rufai’s attacks on Tinubu are an expression of anger over exclusion and a failed sense of entitlement.”

The ex-lawmaker who recently defected from the PDP to the APC further accused El-Rufai of weaponising poverty by sacking thousands of civil servants and demolishing houses of poor people, including struggling retirees.