DSS Picks Up El-Rufai After Court Grants Bail; Family Alleges Defiance Of Court Orders, Psychological Torture, Political Persecution

Abuja, Nigeria– The family of former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, expressed concern over his continued detention after operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) allegedly took him into custody on Monday shortly after a court session at the Federal High Court in Abuja, despite subsisting court orders directing otherwise.

The family raised alarm over a brazen violation of judicial authority, insisting that el-Rufai ought to remain in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in compliance with existing court directives.

Speaking to journalists outside the DSS facility, el-Rufai’s second wife, Hasiat, painted a grim picture of intimidation, fear and what she termed sustained psychological pressure on the family.

“We now live in constant fear. Every day we get a threat — DSS is coming to raid your house, ICPC is coming to raid your house, police are coming to raid your house. You are being followed. Our phones are tapped,” she said.

She recounted that earlier in the day, her husband appeared before Justice Joyce AbdulMalik of the Federal High Court, where the court granted him bail and stood the matter down until 1pm.

According to her, during the break in proceedings, DSS operatives attempted to take el-Rufai into their custody — a move he resisted, citing two subsisting court orders from a Kaduna State High Court which directed that he be remanded with the ICPC.

“He said to them, I am not going to step down because there are two court orders that the Kaduna court gave that I should be remanded in ICPC. Why are you bringing me here? He said, I am not a furniture to be moved,” Hasiat narrated.

She explained that following his resistance, el-Rufai was briefly returned to ICPC custody. However, after the afternoon session — during which the prosecution sought an adjournment and the court fixed continuation for the following day — DSS officials again moved him to their facility instead of returning him to the ICPC, in what the family described as a deliberate act of disobedience to court orders.

As of the time she addressed the press, Hasiat said the former governor had refused to step out of the vehicle conveying him into the DSS premises.

“He told them that if you want to take me inside DSS custody, you will have to physically force me into doing this, because you had an agreement,” she said.

Providing further details, she revealed that when Justice AbdulMalik initially directed that el-Rufai be taken to DSS, the defence had drawn the court’s attention to subsisting orders mandating his custody with ICPC. According to her, the judge then instructed both agencies to decide who would take custody, after which it was agreed that ICPC would retain him.

“When Justice AbdulMalik said I should go to DSS in the first instance, we told her that there are subsisting orders. And she said, let DSS and ICPC go and decide who will keep him — and you people decided they are keeping him with ICPC. What has changed?” she queried.

Hasiat further disclosed that el-Rufai, who has now spent 91 days in custody, had been denied access to his personal physicians despite a separate court order issued by Justice Aikawa of the Kaduna State High Court granting him unfettered access to both his lawyers and doctors.

She said the ICPC’s in-house medical personnel had earlier recommended that el-Rufai undergo certain medical tests, after which it was agreed that his personal doctors would return to review and explain the results to him — an arrangement she alleged was later disregarded.

“When you see a doctor and you run tests, you are expected to see the doctor back so that he explains what the problem is. He was denied access to the doctor because in their own explanation, they said Malam was not aware that the doctor was coming. I asked Malam — Malam said nobody told him,” she said.

The family demanded his immediate return to ICPC custody in line with subsisting court orders, restoration of his access to personal physicians, and an end to what they described as psychological torment.

Also speaking, el-Rufai’s son and member of the House of Representatives, Bello el-Rufai, alleged that the entire process was politically motivated and questioned the stringent bail conditions imposed by the court.

“Who keeps a person for 91 days? Why were the terms of the bail so stringent that it is practically impossible for anybody to meet? Why do you have to say that Kaduna State Council of Chiefs will have to give an attestation? Why are we saying that it has to be a government staff of level 17, with a house in Asokoro or Maitama? Which civil servant has N100 million?

“What are we trying to do — are we trying to make people come out so that they can be targeted too?” he asked.

He further accused the ICPC of issuing misleading statements, alleging that the anti-graft agency had lied on at least one previous occasion, and disclosed plans to submit a formal petition before the House of Representatives.

In his remarks, the Director General of the el-Rufai Support Group Association, Dr. Uche Dialla, escalated the matter to the level of international human rights concerns, arguing that the treatment met the threshold of psychological torture under global conventions.

“Torture is not just physical torture. When you take a man psychologically — he is in the custody of ICPC, and then he goes to court, and when there is a break you take him to another environment — that is psychological torture. His bag, his toothbrush is with ICPC. He is not there by choice. He was confined there by the orders of a court. Anything other than taking him back there would be deliberately torturing him,” Dialla said.

Meanwhile, Senator Lawal Adamu, who represents Kaduna Central and arrived during the press briefing, called for the immediate release of the former governor, noting that he had voluntarily returned to Nigeria from Cairo to honour the invitation of authorities.

“He was outside this country. He was invited by the ICPC, and he flew all the way from Cairo back to Nigeria to submit himself. We are calling for his immediate release. He deserves to be granted bail on the basis of self-recognition. What is happening is psychological harassment because of politics,” the senator stated.