ICPC BOWS TO PRESSURE, PREPARES TO FILE SENSATIONAL CHARGES AGAINST EL-RUFAI

After 30 days of illegal detention, reports indicate that the Federal Government has bowed to public pressure to either release Mallam Nasir El-Rufai or charge him to court. The ICPC has finally been pushed to act, having received approval from its handlers to file headline grabbing charges in court. Reports indicate that the ICPC and its collaborators have prepared a desperate prelude to traduce El-Rufai in the media with sensational claims.

The decision to file charges is coming two years after the alliance of NSA Nuhu Ribadu and Senator Uba Sani went public with their project to destroy El-Rufai. This project of destruction was unveiled at a town-hall meeting Senator Uba Sani hosted in Kaduna in March 2024, to give cover to a probe of his predecessor that he had orchestrated at the Kaduna State House of Assembly. The report of that probe was lampooned as the shabby output of a shady conspiracy. That did not stop the project managers from using it as the launchpad for their assault on the reputation and liberty of El-Rufai, the man who arguably made both Ribadu and Uba Sani.

The discredited report of the Kaduna State House of Assembly had claimed that N432bn of public funds were missing. In the two years since the report came out, the Ribadu-Uba Sani alliance has not been standing by this ridiculous figure, but has sought to charge El-Rufai’s officials with offences to sustain the narrative of corruption. It is reminiscent of the Farida Waziri-led EFCC which from 2008 alleged that N32bn was missing from the sale of Federal Government houses that was supervised by El-Rufai. They got their media associates to lead with that story for over two years. Yet, there was no mention of any missing N32bn when then EFCC finally filed charges in 2010.

El-Rufai also approached the Federal High Court which issued a declaratory order that no such funds were missing from the sale of Federal Government houses. El-Rufai challenged the Kaduna State House of Assembly report in a fundamental rights enforcement case he filed at the Federal High Court in 2024.

El-Rufai reported voluntarily to the EFCC on 16 February 2026 and was transferred to the ICPC on 18 February. He had repeatedly told officials who interrogated him to charge him to court with any evidence they had.

El-Rufai’s illegal detention and the campaign of vilification by the ICPC have exposed the political nature of the persecution he is enduring. One notable example of this pattern of misconduct is the false but sensational claim the ICPC made in an affidavit in which it said that wiretapping equipment were recovered from El- Rufai’s residence. The egregious nature of his treatment as a political prisoner has compelled his lawyers to file criminal complaints against the ICPC chairman and some of his officials for forgery and wrongful confinement.