Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised the alarm over the prolonged detention of ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, describing his bail terms as so demanding that they may clash with constitutional protections.

Through his aide Phrank Shaibu, Atiku argued that bail is meant to uphold the presumption of innocence, not to serve as a back door to imprisonment, and warned that conditions no one can realistically meet amount to refusing bail outright.

He singled out the requirement for a serving Grade Level 17 federal civil servant offering property in Abuja’s most expensive districts, questioning whether the aim was to release the defendant or to make freedom impossible. Bail, he insisted, was never intended as a tool for punishing people before any conviction.

In a further statement, Atiku attacked what he called the presidency’s attempt to pin worsening insecurity and economic pain on the media, dismissing it as denial. Nigerians, he said, did not need newspapers to confirm their hunger, nor broadcasts to grasp inflation when they were paying several times more for basic food than two years earlier.