{"id":125778,"date":"2026-02-21T05:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=125778"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:53:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:53:00","slug":"legal-team-condemns-icpc-raid-on-el-rufais-abuja-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/legal-team-condemns-icpc-raid-on-el-rufais-abuja-residence\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Team Condemns ICPC Raid on El-Rufai\u2019s Abuja Residence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Oscar Okhifo, Abuja<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have raided the Abuja residence of former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, a move his legal team has described as unlawful and a violation of his fundamental rights.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The operation took place at his Aso Drive home in the Federal Capital Territory and was confirmed by El-Rufai\u2019s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The raid comes amid ongoing investigations into alleged financial irregularities during his tenure as Kaduna governor between 2015 and 2023.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0On 16 February, the former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, voluntarily reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) following a petition by the Kaduna State House of Assembly over alleged mismanagement and diversion of public funds.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He spent two nights in EFCC custody answering questions related to the allegations.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">After his release on bail by the EFCC on February 18, he was taken into ICPC custody, having also been invited for questioning as part of a separate investigation.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0The ICPC\u2019s Head of Media and Public Communications, John Okor Odey, confirmed on Wednesday, 18 February, that the former governor was in the commission\u2019s custody.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The commission, however, did not disclose the specific allegations against him or indicate how long he would remain in custody.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">El-Rufai\u2019s lawyer, Ubong Akpan, Criticized the raid, describing it as \u201cunlawful\u201d and \u201ca violation of my client\u2019s fundamental rights.\u201d He added that \u201cproper legal procedures were not followed.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former governor has also been linked to alleged attempts to intercept communications of national security officials, which remain under investigation by relevant agencies.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">His legal team and supporters have condemned what they describe as repeated detentions by multiple agencies as \u201carbitrary and contrary to due process.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">For now, El-Rufai remains in ICPC custody. No formal court charges or arraignments have been made public, and investigations by anti-graft agencies continue.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oscar Okhifo, Abuja Operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have raided the Abuja residence of former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, a move&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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