A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed December 2 for judgment in the N1 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, against the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik fixed the date on Tuesday after lawyers in the matter adopted their processes for final addresses.
When the case was called, counsel to the former governor was not in court, and the judge made an order deeming all the processes filed by El-Rufai adopted. Abdul Mohammed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who appeared for the ICPC, identified and adopted the commission’s processes and urged the court to dismiss the suit in its entirety. Counsel to the Inspector-General, ACP Ezekiel Rimamsomte, and the Director of Civil Litigation and Public Law in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Maimuna Lami-Shiru, who represented the Attorney-General, equally adopted their separate processes and prayed the court to dismiss the suit.
Midway through the proceedings, Mr Ubong Akpan, counsel to the former governor, entered the courtroom and apologised for his lateness. He sought leave to adopt his client’s documents but was informed that the processes had already been deemed adopted.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/345/2026, was dated and filed on February 20 by Oluwole Iyamu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and seeks seven reliefs. It was originally filed against the ICPC, the Chief Magistrate of the Federal Capital Territory Magistrates’ Court, the Inspector-General and the Attorney-General as first to fourth respondents. The former governor later dropped the magistrate from the case after the judge observed that he had been unable to specify the identity of the officer sued as second respondent.
El-Rufai is asking the court to declare that the invasion and search of his residence at House 12, Mambilla Street, Abuja, on February 19 at about 2pm by operatives of the ICPC and the police amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental rights to dignity of the human person, personal liberty, fair hearing and privacy under Sections 34, 35, 36 and 37 of the Constitution.
He also wants the court to declare that any evidence obtained through what he described as an invalid warrant and unlawful search is inadmissible in any proceedings against him, and to restrain the respondents from relying on or tendering any items seized during the search in any investigation or prosecution. He further sought an order directing the commission and the police to return all items seized, with a detailed inventory, and an award of N1 billion as general, exemplary and aggravated damages.
In its counter-affidavit, the ICPC said it received a petition against the former governor and, acting on it, commenced an investigation that led to the search. The commission argued that its operatives acted under a search warrant issued on February 18 and executed on February 19 between 1.37pm and 3.56pm at 12 Mambilla Street, Asokoro, Abuja, and that its officials were accompanied by police personnel, with the exercise witnessed by El-Rufai’s wife, Hadiza, and his son, Mohammed. It urged the court to dismiss the suit and listed the items allegedly recovered from the residence.
The Inspector-General, in a counter-affidavit deposed to by Insp Ewa Anthony, argued that the police have the statutory power to detect, arrest, investigate and prosecute offenders, that the search was executed pursuant to a warrant issued by a competent court, and that his officers complied with all applicable legal procedures. He said the applicant was attempting to use the court to shield himself from investigation and prosecution, and urged the court to dismiss the suit.
The Attorney-General, in a counter-affidavit filed by Lami-Shiru, denied being privy to the facts of the matter, argued that the commission and the police acted within their statutory functions, and said the items seized were to enable the conclusion of an investigation. He also argued that the suit was an abuse of court processes, as the former governor had two pending suits on the same subject matter before the FCT High Court, and asked the court to dismiss it for want of merit.
The judgment will land in a widening body of litigation between the former governor and state institutions. A separate N120 million rights suit he filed over the same events was dismissed in October, while a criminal charge of phone tapping against him survived a no-case submission at another court, and the commission obtained leave to play CCTV footage in a related N10 billion suit. December 2 will tell whether the N1 billion claim meets a different fate.