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The African Democratic Congress, ADC, on Friday accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, of blocking access to former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai after senior leaders of the party were denied access to him at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The opposition party said the restrictions surrounding El-Rufai’s detention were raising fresh concerns about political persecution, especially following claims by members of his family that he had been denied access to doctors, food and visitors despite voluntarily presenting himself to the authorities.
The allegations were contained in a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, after a delegation led by the ADC National Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, alongside Abdullahi and Secretary of the ADC Policy and Manifesto Committee, Salihu Lukman, visited the ICPC headquarters but was allegedly refused access to the former governor, who remains in the custody of the anti-graft agency.
ADC also alleged that tension rose at the Commission’s headquarters while its delegation waited for a response to its request, claiming that three truckloads of armed police officers were deployed to the premises.
“It is deeply troubling that a simple request by senior party officials to visit a detained colleague was met, not with professionalism, but with a show of force more suited to the suppression of civil unrest,” the party added.
The party maintained that members of its delegation remained peaceful throughout the visit and neither threatened disorder nor mobilised supporters to the facility.
ADC said, “At no point did members of our delegation threaten disorder, incite confrontation, or mobilise supporters to the premises. Yet the response of the state suggested panic, fear, and an attempt to intimidate not only our party leaders but also any Nigerian who may dare to question the treatment being meted out to opposition figures.
“What we are witnessing increasingly appears to be punishment by process, intimidation through isolation, and an attempt to break the spirit of a leading opposition figure.”
According to the statement, Aregbesola had earlier written formally to the Chairman of the ICPC, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, requesting visitation rights to El-Rufai following growing concerns over his wellbeing.
The opposition party said members of the former governor’s family had also complained that even court-ordered medical access was allegedly being frustrated through alleged administrative obstruction and arbitrary protocols.
“Only days ago, Hajiya Asia El-Rufai publicly alleged that her husband was denied access to his doctor and that she was prevented from delivering food to him while in custody after arriving at the facility in the evening,” Abdullahi said.
While acknowledging that the ICPC had denied the allegations and maintained that due process was being followed, ADC said the refusal to grant access to El-Rufai was fuelling suspicion over the nature of his detention.
“Let it be clear: Mallam Nasir El-Rufai is not a fugitive. He voluntarily submitted himself to the authorities. Under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is entitled to dignity, medical care, family access, and fair treatment under the law,” the party said.
The ADC demanded immediate and unrestricted access to El-Rufai by his family, doctors, lawyers and political associates, warning that anything less would further strengthen public perception that state institutions were being used against opposition voices.
“The ADC will not stand by and watch one of its leaders subjected to this pattern of harassment and calculated humiliation. Nigeria is watching. The international community is watching. The world is watching,” the party added.
The family of former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Monday, raised the alarm after the Department of State Services, DSS, officials allegedly took him into custody following a court sitting at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to the family, the action was in apparent breach of existing court orders directing that he remain in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ICPC.
El-Rufai’s second wife, Hasiat, who addressed journalists outside the DSS facility, said the family was traumatized by the development and lived daily under the shadow of threats and surveillance.
“We now live in constant fear. Every day we get a threat — DSS is coming to raid your house, ICPC is coming to raid your house, police are coming to raid your house. You are being followed. Our phones are tapped,” she said.
She narrated that earlier in the day, el-Rufai had appeared before Justice Joyce AbdulMalik of the Federal High Court, who granted bail and stood the matter down until 1pm.
During the break, she said, he was briefly taken to the DSS facility — a move he resisted, insisting that two subsisting court orders from a Kaduna court directed that he be remanded with the ICPC.
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“He said to them, I am not going to step down because there are two court orders that the Kaduna court gave that I should be remanded in ICPC. Why are you bringing me here? He said, I am not a furniture to be moved,” she recounted.
She said he was subsequently returned to the ICPC, but that after the afternoon session — during which the prosecution sought an adjournment and the judge fixed a resumption for the following day — he was again brought to the DSS instead of being returned to ICPC custody.
As of the time she spoke, she said el-Rufai had refused to step out of the vehicle.
“He told them that if you want to take me inside DSS custody, you will have to physically force me into doing this, because you had an agreement.
“When Justice AbdulMalik said I should go to DSS in the first instance, we told her that there are subsisting orders. And she said, let DSS and ICPC go and decide who will keep him — and you people decided they are keeping him with ICPC.
“What has changed?” she queried.
Hasiat also disclosed that el-Rufai, who has been in custody for 91 days, had been denied access to his personal physicians in violation of a court order by Justice Aikawa of the Kaduna State High Court granting him unfettered access to his lawyers and doctors.
She explained that the ICPC’s own in-house doctor had recommended that el-Rufai run medical tests, after which it was agreed that the doctors would return to discuss the results with him.
That agreement, she said, was subsequently disregarded.
“When you see a doctor and you run tests, you are expected to see the doctor back so that he explains what the problem is. He was denied access to the doctor because in their own explanation, they said Malam was not aware that the doctor was coming. I asked Malam — Malam said nobody told him,” she said.
The family’s demands were clear: el-Rufai’s immediate return to ICPC custody in line with the existing court orders, restoration of his access to personal physicians, and an end to what they described as psychological torment of both the former governor and his family.
El-Rufai’s son and member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bello el-Rufai, was unequivocal that the entire affair was politically motivated, questioning the stringency of bail conditions that he said were deliberately designed to be impossible to meet.
“Who keeps a person for 91 days? Why were the terms of the bail so stringent that it is practically impossible for anybody to meet? Why do you have to say that Kaduna State Council of Chiefs will have to give an attestation? Why are we saying that it has to be a government staff of level 17, with a house in Asokoro or Maitama? Which civil servant has N100 million?
