El-Rufai family accuses ICPC of violating court orders, abusing detention protocols

The family of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of violating court orders and subjecting him to what it described as psychological intimidation while in detention.

In a statement issued on behalf of the family on Tuesday, Mohammed Bello El-Rufai alleged that the anti-graft agency was using administrative “protocols” to frustrate access to El-Rufai by his family, lawyers and medical doctor despite existing court orders.

The family said the ICPC failed to deny claims that it prevented El-Rufai’s doctor from seeing him on May 15 and also obstructed the delivery of dinner brought by his wife later that evening.

“The ICPC statement was unable to deny that it prevented Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s doctor seeing him on Friday, 15 May 2026,” the statement said.

It added: “Neither was it able to state that it did not prevent delivery of dinner by his wife later that same evening.”

According to the family, the ICPC was aware of court orders granting El-Rufai access to his relatives, legal representatives and doctors, but was allegedly deploying internal procedures to undermine those orders.

“While we respect internal administrative procedures, we must protest when those protocols become tools for waging a subtle psychological war on our family or for brazen violations of court orders,” the statement read.

The family further accused the commission of attempting to “break” the former governor through harsh detention conditions.