El-Rufai Bail Hearing Adjourned Till Today

A former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has been arraigned at the Federal and State High Courts in Kaduna over alleged corruption-related offences by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), amid tight security.

At the Federal High Court, Kaduna, the court adjourned the hearing of El-Rufai’s bail application to today.

El-Rufai was arraigned before Justice Rilwan Aikawa on 10 counts of alleged conversion and possession of public property, as well as money laundering.

The adjournment followed a brief court session during which the defence counsel filed a motion urging Justice Aikawa to recuse himself from the case over alleged bias and the existence of a pending petition against him.

However, the defence subsequently filed another motion withdrawing the application, seeking the judge’s recusal.

The lead counsel for the former governor, Ukpong Abang, who declined to provide detailed comments on the proceedings, confirmed the development shortly after the court session.

He said, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk now, we are in the middle of work. I have to go and file responses. The hearing of the bail application has been adjourned till tomorrow (today),” he said.

The court had fixed March 31, 2026, for the hearing of pending applications, including his bail request.

On March 27, 2026, the former governor who lost his mother, Hajiya Ummah El-Rufai, was granted an administrative bail by the ICPC on compassionate grounds to bury his mother, who died in Cairo, Egypt and was buried on Sunday in Abuja.

Before his appearance at the Federal High Court, the ICPC had arraigned El-Rufai at the Kaduna State High Court alongside a businessman, Amadu Sule, on allegations of abuse of office, fraud, attempted fraud, and granting undue advantage.