ICPC Detains El-Rufai After Release From EFCC As DSS Denies Arrest Of Ex-Governor

Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has been taken to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Wednesday night after his brief stay in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Security sources said El-Rufai was picked up from the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday night by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), who has been waiting for him since Monday when he was first detained.

However, he was taken to the ICPC headquarters, where he was earlier scheduled to answer some questions on Tuesday.

DSS sources, however, denied arresting and detaining El-Rufai on Wednesday night, insisting that he was not in their custody.

LEADERSHIP gathered that El-Rufai maybe shuttling between the EFCC, ICPC and the DSS as investigations into the allegations of financial misappropriation and disappearance of some of his critics continued.

A reliable source, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the EFCC planned to hold the embattled former governor until he is arraigned I court over N432 billion fraud allegations against him.

Part of the accusations against the former governor included misappropriation of loans, violating due process in contract awards, money laundering and plunging the state into heavy debts rather than relieving the state with no trace of any project tied to the money.

The Department of State Services had also re-opened the “cold case” of the 2019 disappearance, in Kaduna, of a renowned government critic, Abubakar Idris, better known as Dadiyata, and several other cases of missing persons linked to the former governor of Kaduna State.

A top security source who made the disclosure, also revealed that last Thursday’s seizure of the former governor’s passport by DSS officers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe international airport, Abuja, was to stop him from fleeing to Egypt after briefly visiting Nigeria.

According to the source, “El-Rufai is fully aware that the DSS is investigating him for Dadiyata’s kidnap. So, he planned to visit the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, and then visit the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday. Thereafter, he will fly back to Cairo. Seizing his passport has shattered his plans.”

The security source further stated that the reopening of Dadiyata’s kidnap case followed months of intense investigations. The leads, he said, suggested that El-Rufai, who was Kaduna State governor at the time of Dadiyata’s disappearance, masterminded the kidnap.

A lecturer in the Department of English and Linguistics at the Federal University Dutsinma (FUDMA), Katsina State, Dadiyata was on August 1, 2019, declared missing by his wife after some gunmen abducted him in his Kaduna home. His whereabouts remained unknown till date.