Court grants ICPC permission to analyse devices seized from el-Rufai’s residence

A federal high court in Abuja has granted the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) permission to access and analyse electronic devices recovered from the residence of Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna.

Joyce Abdulmalik, the presiding judge, granted the order on Thursday following an ex parte motion filed by the ICPC.

Moving the application, Osuobeni Akponimisingha, counsel to the ICPC, asked the court to allow the commission to access the devices for inspection and forensic examination.

Akponimisingha told the court that the request was necessary to enable investigators to conduct forensic analysis and data extraction as part of an ongoing investigation involving the former governor.

Items listed by the commission include a Sony HD-EGS storage device, a 1TB Transcend storage device, a Toshiba storage device, a Samsung mobile phone, a Nokia N95 8GB mobile phone, a BlackBerry device and a Google IDEOS phone.

Others are a Samsung storage device (SPO802N), a Remarkable tablet, an Apple MacBook Pro, a Seagate FreeAgent external drive, a ZTE mobile phone, 10 flash drives and a microcell memory card.

The application, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/499/2026, was filed in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against el-Rufai.

El-Rufai had challenged the search of his Abuja residence by the ICPC on February 19.

The former governor is praying the court to nullify the search warrant issued by a magistrate court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on February 4, authorising the search and seizure at his residence.

He sought a court order to rule that any evidence obtained from the search is inadmissible in any proceeding against him, on the grounds that it was procured in breach of constitutional safeguards.

El-Rufai also sought N1 billion as general, exemplary and aggravated damages for alleged violations of his fundamental rights, including trespass, unlawful seizure, psychological trauma, humiliation, distress and reputational harm.

The former governor joined the chief magistrate who issued the order, the inspector-general of police (IGP), and the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) as respondents in the suit.