Detained former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has filed a N10 billion suit against the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), accusing the agency of violating his fundamental rights.
In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1852/2026, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, El-Rufai accused the ICPC of blocking his wife, Aichatou Asabe, and son, Abba El-Rufai, from seeing him.
He wants the court to rule that the repeated denial of family access, including their inability to provide him with food, medication and other necessities, violated his rights under Sections 34 and 37 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 5 and 18 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Through his lawyer, Ubong Akpan, El-Rufai said ICPC officials physically restrained and intimidated his wife and son on July 7, calling it an arbitrary interference with his family relationships.
He also asked the court to order the respondents to allow him reasonable and unhindered access to his family and lawyer throughout his detention, as earlier directed by the court.
El-Rufai said the denial of access subjected him “to humiliation, emotional trauma, anxiety and psychological distress.”
He accused the respondents of acting “arbitrarily, unlawfully and in a manner inconsistent with Sections 34, 37 and 46 of the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
“The respondents’ conduct amounts to an unjustifiable interference with the applicant’s dignity and family life and is therefore unconstitutional,” El-Rufai added.
The former governor, detained since February, had earlier filed a separate N1 billion rights suit over the alleged unlawful search of his Abuja home.
El-Rufai, governor from 2015 to 2023 and former FCT minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo, is facing several charges in Abuja and Kaduna, including an allegation involving the unlawful interception of NSA Nuhu Ribadu’s phone communications.
Although he was granted bail on strict conditions in Abuja, a Kaduna court approved his continued ICPC detention while ordering that he be allowed access to his family, lawyer and physician.
