Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has dragged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to court again, this time demanding N10 billion over alleged denial of access to his wife and son while in detention.

In a fresh fundamental rights suit filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja on August 13, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1852/2026, El-Rufai accused the ICPC of blocking his family from seeing him.

Through his lawyer, Ubong Akpan, the former governor joined the ICPC Chairman and the Attorney-General of the Federation as 2nd and 3rd defendants.

El-Rufai claimed that ICPC officials repeatedly stopped his wife, Aichatou Asabe, and son, Abba El-Rufai, from visiting him to deliver food, medication and other necessities.

He said on July 7, ICPC officers allegedly “physically restrained and intimidated” his wife and son.

He argued that the action 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.

“The respondents’ continued denial of family access without lawful authority is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void,” the suit stated.

He is asking the court for 9 reliefs, including an order for “unhindered and reasonable access to members of his family and counsel throughout the period of his detention.”

In an affidavit deposed by his Principal Secretary, Mohammed Shaba, El-Rufai said he is currently detained at the ICPC office in Abuja as the 1st defendant in case FHC/KD/73C/2025 before the Federal High Court, Kaduna.

Shaba stated that Asabe had been the one providing El-Rufai with food, clothing and medication, and that she visited without obstruction before July 7.

He recalled that Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Kaduna court had on April 1 ordered the ICPC to allow the defendants access to their lawyers and personal physicians.

“Clearly, this order reflects the settled principle of law that detainees are not to be held incommunicado,” the affidavit read.

El-Rufai alleged that the denial “subjected the applicant to humiliation, emotional trauma, anxiety and psychological distress.”

This is not the first time El-Rufai is suing the ICPC.

In February, he filed a separate N1 billion fundamental rights suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/345/2026, over an alleged unlawful search of his Abuja residence. He challenged a search warrant issued by an FCT Chief Magistrate, claiming it violated his rights to dignity, liberty, fair hearing and privacy. He later amended the suit and dropped the magistrate as a defendant.

El-Rufai wants the court to declare that the ICPC acted “arbitrarily, unlawfully and in a manner inconsistent with Sections 34, 37 and 46 of the Constitution and the African Charter.”

He also wants the agency to be compelled to grant him access to family and lawyers as earlier directed by the court.

Source: Punch Newspaper