El-Rufai Denied Medical Care, Wife Physically Assaulted, Doctor Arrested – ADC Reveals
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused officials of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of denying former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, access to medical care.
The party also alleged that El-Rufai’s personal physician was arrested while his wife was physically assaulted during a disagreement with ICPC officials.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said El-Rufai was scheduled to receive treatment at the National Hospital, Abuja, but ICPC officials allegedly insisted on returning him to custody despite medical advice that he required hospitalisation.
The party claimed that protests by his wife and personal doctor led to a scuffle.
The ADC described the development as a violation of El-Rufai’s rights and accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of using state institutions to intimidate political opponents.
“The world should know today that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is holding a political prisoner in Nigeria by the name of Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai,” the party alleged.
It said no democratic government should deny a detainee access to medical care or prevent close family members from seeing him.
The party added that the matter had gone beyond El-Rufai, saying it raised questions about whether Nigeria remained a constitutional democracy.
It said: “The ICPC owes Nigerians immediate explanations. On whose authority was access to his family denied? Why has access to his doctor been refused despite concerns about his health? What legal basis exists for these actions? Why were El-Rufai’s wife and doctor assaulted by the ICPC operatives?
“President Tinubu cannot continue to hide behind anti-corruption agencies while pretending that these actions are independent of his administration.
“Under our Constitution, the buck stops with the President. Every day that Mallam El-Rufai remains in custody under these circumstances is another day that Bola Tinubu keeps criminalising political opposition instead of confronting the grave crises of insecurity, unemployment, inflation, and hunger confronting millions of Nigerians.”
The ADC demanded immediate and unrestricted access for El-Rufai to his wife, children, lawyers and personal doctors.
It also called for a review of what it described as punitive bail conditions imposed on him.
The party further demanded an end to what it called harsh and degrading custody conditions, full compliance with constitutional guarantees and transparency from the ICPC on the legal basis for restrictions placed on him.
The full demands are:
1. Immediate and unrestricted access for Mallam El-Rufai to his wife, children, legal team, and personal medical practitioners.
2. An urgent review of the punitive and disproportionate bail conditions imposed on Mallam El-Rufai, with a view to ensuring that they conform with the Constitution and the fundamental principle that bail is intended to secure attendance at trial, not to inflict punishment before conviction.
3. An immediate end to the harsh, degrading and unnecessarily restrictive conditions under which he is being held and supervised, and his release from what has become a regime of political persecution masquerading as lawful process.
4. Full compliance with all constitutional guarantees and internationally recognised standards governing the treatment of persons in custody.
5. Complete transparency from the ICPC regarding the legal and factual basis for every restriction imposed on him.
6. An immediate end to the use of state institutions as instruments of political intimidation, vendetta and selective justice.
