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Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has adjourned the case of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to 23 April 2026.
This development was announced by the former governor’s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, in a post shared on X on Wednesday morning.
El-Rufai, who was expected in court on Wednesday, was absent because he had not yet been released by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to the Department of State Services (DSS).
The legal counsel for DSS, Oluwole Aladedoye, SAN, requested that the court grant a two-week adjournment to enable the DSS to produce El-Rufai, who is in the custody of the ICPC.
El-Rufai’s legal counsel, Wole Iyamu SAN, however, told the court that the DSS does not require any adjournment to produce El-Rufai from the custody of a sister agency.
“Justice Joyce Abdulmalik adjourned the case to 23 April 2026, a two-month adjournment, longer than the two weeks requested by the prosecution counsel. This adjournment meant that the two applications to quash the DSS charges and the bail application were not taken. The DSS filed the charges on 16 February, prompting El-Rufai’s lawyers to file to quash them,” said Adekeye.
El-Rufai has been in and out of the custody of the DSS, EFCC and ICPC since February 16, shortly after he alleged that National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu’s phone was tapped.
The ICPC took him into custody at night on 18 February and has not granted him administrative bail.
The former governor’s lawyers said that he suffered a nosebleed while in the custody of the EFCC, an allegation which was rejected by the ICPC. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar weighed in on the case on Tuesday, demanding transparency and clarity from the Nigerian Government and accusing it of “selective prosecution”.
