Bello El-Rufai relapses into his old mode, describes three Nigerian newspapers as ‘toilet papers’

A member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Banking Regulations, Bello El-Rufai, has described three Nigerian newspapers as ‘toilet papers’ following a report about his second marriage last Saturday.

The three newspapers that came under the virulent tweet of Bello include; Daily Trust, Thisday and PUNCH Newspaper.

Their offence? They reported that he took a second wife when in actual fact, he had parted ways with his first wife, Kamilah, whom he married in 2015. For failing to state that fact, Bello unleashed venom against the media brands on X, formerly Twitter.

In the tweet, which was a reply to Leadership Newspaper, Bello praised the medium for ‘accurately’ reporting that the story.

The tweet reads: “Thank you @LeadershipNGA for the accurate reporting. Toilet papers like @daily_trust, @THISDAYLIVE, @MobilePunch have a lot to learn from you. But why am I surprised? Gossip blogs are better than them.”

When someone in the comment section explained to him that an error in the reports should not be enough to throw such tantrums, he doubled down. “They chose to be fools. A journalist shouldn’t assume. If they do, I can choose to assume they are a toilet paper.”

This is not the first time Bello-El-Rufai will be using gutter language against perceived opponents.

In April 2020, he threw caution to the winds when he threatened to rape the mother of a Twitter user and pass her over to his friends.

The young El-Rufai had made the threat after disagreeing with the Twitter user @thanos_zer on President Muhammadu Buhari’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The uproar generated by the comment of the young El-Rufai at the time forced his mother, Hadiza, who initially supported her son, to apologise.

After the episode, Bello toned down his violent comments on social media, perhaps as part of the greater goal of becoming a House of Representatives member.

Now that he has become ‘Honurable’ member of the House of Reps, perhaps, the young El-Rufai may have returned to his old mood.