The African Democratic Congress has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of political persecution following the reported arrest of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El Rufai’s personal physician and an alleged assault on his wife during an altercation with officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
In a statement from National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi, the party alleged that ICPC officials prevented El Rufai from receiving treatment at the National Hospital in Abuja despite medical advice recommending his admission, and that when his wife and physician protested his return to custody, a scuffle broke out during which his wife was allegedly assaulted and his physician arrested. The ADC called the episode an abuse of constitutional rights, accusing the administration of using state institutions to target political opponents, and claimed El Rufai had been denied access to his family and doctor despite court orders granting him unrestricted access to his lawyers, physician and relatives. The party demanded that the ICPC explain the legal basis for the restrictions, and pressed President Tinubu directly to take responsibility for the agency’s actions, arguing he cannot simply distance himself from the matter.
Among its specific demands, the ADC called for immediate and unrestricted access for El Rufai to his wife, children, legal team and medical practitioners, an urgent review of what it called punitive and disproportionate bail conditions to bring them in line with the constitutional principle that bail exists to secure trial attendance rather than punish before conviction, an end to what it described as harsh and unnecessarily restrictive detention conditions, full compliance with constitutional guarantees and international standards on the treatment of detainees, complete transparency from the ICPC on the legal basis for every restriction imposed, and an end to what it called the use of state institutions as tools of political intimidation and selective justice. The ICPC, which confirmed through spokesperson John Odey that it arrested El Rufai’s physician, Professor Bello Abubakar, on Tuesday, described the arrest as a response to an abuse of privilege by El Rufai and the doctor and a violation of a court order, but had not otherwise responded to the ADC’s broader allegations at the time of reporting.
Speaking separately in Abuja alongside El Rufai’s other wife Aichatou, Hajiya Asiya El Rufai made a direct personal appeal to the president, saying her husband, diagnosed with high blood pressure and high blood sugar, had been denied access to medical treatment after his physician’s arrest. She recalled campaigning for Tinubu across every corner of Kaduna State in 2023 and said her husband stood by him throughout that campaign, asking whether this is what their family deserves in return and telling the president the situation is now in his hands to resolve with a single word. She stressed the family is not asking Tinubu to interfere with the prosecution itself or halt the judicial process, only to ensure El Rufai receives the basic constitutional rights available to every Nigerian, including medical care, family access, legal representation and bail on terms he can actually afford, saying that if he is guilty, let the court decide, and if he is innocent, let the court decide that too.
