Bashir El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, sparked outrage with a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he threatened to kill a user who insulted his mother, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, following her comments on a U.S. travel ban.
Reacting to former President Donald Trump’s travel restrictions on four African countries, including Nigeria, Mrs El-Rufai tweeted, “A great percentage of these Nigerian Americans making us proud abroad are Igbos. There’s always two sides to every story.” The comment triggered mixed reactions, prompting her to clarify that cyberbullying would not silence her.
“No cyberbully can take away my right to express my opinion. Not everything is about politics, but that is something some of you will never understand,” she added.
One X user, @jussstice09, responded insultingly, saying, “You no go die well ma.”
This provoked Bashir’s violent threat: “If you ever utter that phrase to my mother again & delete that tweet, I am going to find you (it’s easier than you think) & unalive you and your family.”
He later deleted the post and did not respond to a request for comment from Peoples Gazette.
The incident is the latest in a series of controversial remarks by Mr El-Rufai. In March, he warned of more bloodshed in Southern Kaduna if attacks on Fulani communities continued. He later deleted the post and apologised after public backlash.
He also once referred to the disappearance of government critic Abubakar ‘Dadiyatta’ Idris as a deserved outcome for spreading falsehoods, calling Nigerians demanding justice for the missing man “clowns.”
