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Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai declared from custody on Wednesday that the anti-corruption commission detaining him should present its case before a court rather than continue questioning him, as a magistrate court detention order authorising his ICPC custody is due to expire on Thursday, March 5, forcing the commission to either file formal charges or release a man who has spent the better part of three weeks shuttling between the custody of three separate federal agencies.
El-Rufai submitted two handwritten statements to ICPC investigators on February 19 and 20 in which he refused to answer questions, invoked his constitutional right to silence on the advice of his counsel Ubong Akpan, and characterised his detention as politically motivated. The statements, which form part of the documents attached to ICPC’s counter-affidavit opposing his ₦1 billion fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, represented the fullest account yet of his position inside custody.
“I believe that after nearly two years of intensive investigation, the ICPC should present its findings to a judicial tribunal and not to me. I will respond to any allegations in a court of law only,” he wrote. “I do not believe these investigations amount to lawful entitlement, as in political persecution, which only a judge can decide upon.”
El-Rufai described the African Democratic Congress, the opposition party he joined last year after defecting from the ruling All Progressives Congress, as “the only surviving opposition party in Nigeria” and said his membership was the real reason investigators were pursuing him. His second statement, submitted after investigators presented additional documents, was a single paragraph reaffirming his silence and specifying that he would respond to all further material only in court.
The sequence of events that produced his current detention began on the night of February 12, when El-Rufai returned from Cairo and found security operatives waiting at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. The ICPC had already attempted to arrest him at the airport on February 5 upon his return from an earlier trip, an attempt that failed when he declined to accompany agents without a formal invitation. He honoured an EFCC invitation on February 16 and remained in EFCC custody until the night of February 18, when he was transferred to the ICPC for investigation into alleged financial misconduct.
Read Also: ICPC Raids Nasir El-Rufai’s Residence After DSS Arrest
The ICPC probe has a specific evidentiary origin. The commission said it began investigating El-Rufai after receiving a petition submitted in June 2024 by Nus’ab Chambers alleging diversion of state funds, mismanagement of loans, and violations of procurement laws during his tenure as governor of Kaduna State between 2015 and 2023. It said it obtained relevant documents from banks and other government agencies and had made several attempts to invite him for questioning through formal letters before resorting to the February search.
On February 19, ICPC agents executed a search warrant at his residence at 12 Mambilla Street, Asokoro, Abuja, witnessed by his wife Hadiza Isma El-Rufai and his son Mohammed Bello El-Rufai.
The commission said it recovered sensitive security documents and electronic equipment allegedly capable of tapping phone conversations. El-Rufai’s son and legislator Mohammed Bello El-Rufai dismissed those claims as fiction, saying only old discarded personal mobile phones, storage devices, and laptops were recovered, and accused the commission of fabricating evidence.
The phone-tapping allegation traces to a live television interview El-Rufai gave on Arise TV’s Prime Time Programme on February 13, in which he alleged that National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu’s phone had been tapped and acknowledged that such an act was illegal. The DSS moved swiftly. The Federal Government filed criminal charges against El-Rufai at the Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged unlawful interception of the NSA’s phone communications under three counts: unlawfully intercepting the communications, knowing of the interception and failing to report it, and using technical equipment to intercept communications in a manner compromising public safety, all under the Cybercrimes Amendment Act 2024 and the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
El-Rufai’s political trajectory provides the backdrop his defence team is invoking. He was a founding figure of the APC and one of the architects of the opposition coalition that defeated Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, serving two terms as governor of Kaduna State. After Tinubu’s 2023 election victory, El-Rufai’s name was included on the ministerial list but his nomination was subsequently withdrawn following a Senate screening process that descended into controversy. He defected to the ADC, registering in his Unguwar Sarki ward in Kaduna and receiving party membership number 000002, and has since positioned himself as a 2027 opposition coalition figure.
Read Also: El-Rufai Sues ICPC, Police For ₦1bn Over Abuja Home Search
The ADC has framed El-Rufai’s detention alongside that of former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, also an ADC member, as evidence of selective enforcement against opposition politicians.
“When a citizen is transferred from one detention facility to another before investigations are demonstrably concluded, it inevitably begs the question: Is detention being used as an investigative shortcut, or as an instrument of pressure to keep these opposition leaders out of circulation?” the party said in a statement. The ICPC has denied that its detention of El-Rufai is politically motivated, maintaining in its court filings that the probe is based on a genuine petition and that charges will be filed before the detention order lapses.
El-Rufai is expected to regain his freedom on Thursday if the ICPC fails to file formal charges before the detention order expires. Whether the commission proceeds to prosecution or releases him without charge will determine whether the confrontation moves to its next phase in open court or reverts to an investigative impasse — and, in the reading of his party and his supporters, whether the institutions involved are prepared to test their allegations before a judge rather than sustain them through extended custody.
