The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has defended its refusal to allow senior African Democratic Congress officials to visit former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai at its detention facility, saying the decision was compelled by an existing court order and not by any political motivation.

The commission’s spokesman said the ADC had formally written to the ICPC chairman requesting permission for party leaders including Rauf Aregbesola and Bolaji Abdullahi to visit El-Rufai. The commission received the letter around May 20 and replied by May 21, informing the party that the court order governing access to El-Rufai was specific and did not extend to political associates.

The court order, as described by the commission, limits access to three categories of people: El-Rufai’s immediate family members, his legal counsel, and his personal doctors. The ICPC spokesman said a political party as an institution did not fall within any of those categories, and that allowing the visit would have put the commission in breach of a judicial directive.

The spokesman dismissed allegations by the ADC that its leaders were harassed or intimidated during the visit, attributing the visible police presence at the commission’s headquarters to routine security arrangements that were in place long before the delegation arrived. He said the mobile police officers and their vehicles were a standard feature of the facility and were not deployed in response to the ADC visit.

He said the commission would continue to comply with the court order and would not grant access to anyone outside the categories the court had specified, adding that the ICPC was acting within the law and had no interest in the political dimensions of the situation.

The ADC had described the denial of access as an act of intimidation against opposition figures, and accused the commission of failing to disclose the court order until after the delegation had already travelled to the facility.