Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai, has filed a fresh N10 billion lawsuit against the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, over alleged restrictions on visits by members of his family while in custody.
The suit, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 13, seeks to enforce what El Rufai described as his fundamental rights during detention.
Through his lawyer, Ubong Akpan, El Rufai alleged that officials of the ICPC prevented his wife, Aichatou Asabe, and his son, Abba El Rufai, from visiting him.
He also joined the ICPC Chairman and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendants in the matter.
The former Kaduna State governor is asking the court to affirm that his constitutional rights remain protected despite being in detention. He argued that denying his family access to him, particularly when they sought to provide food, medication and other personal necessities, was unlawful.
El Rufai also accused ICPC officials of physically restraining and intimidating his wife and son on July 7, describing the incident as an unjustified interference with his family relationships.
He asked the court to declare that “the respondents’ continued denial of family access without lawful authority is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.”
The former governor also wants the court to compel the ICPC to grant him “unhindered and reasonable access to members of his family and counsel throughout the period of his detention as earlier directed by the Federal High Court.”
El Rufai alleged that the restrictions had caused him “humiliation, emotional trauma, anxiety and psychological distress.”
He further accused the commission 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.”
In an affidavit supporting the suit, El Rufai’s Principal Secretary, Mohammed Shaba, stated that the former governor was being held at the ICPC office in Abuja.
Shaba said El Rufai’s wife had regularly provided him with “food, clothing, medication, and other personal necessities required for his comfort, health, and well being while in custody.”
He also referred to an earlier order by Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna, which directed the ICPC to allow the defendants access to their lawyers and personal doctors whenever necessary.
According to Shaba, the order established that detainees should not be kept incommunicado and that the ICPC remains subject to judicial supervision over conditions of detention.
