Asiya el-Rufai: My husband’s detention political — bail conditions difficult to meet

Asiya el-Rufai, one of the wives of Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, says some political moves are being orchestrated to keep her husband in detention.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday, Asiya said the bail conditions being handed to the ex-Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister are not “viable”.

El-Rufai’s wife recounted some of the difficulties being faced by the family in a bid to meet the conditions listed by the federal high courts in Kaduna and Abuja.

She said one of the bail conditions at the federal high court in Kaduna requires an attestation letter from the Kaduna traditional council.

She added that the council refused to issue an attestation letter without stating why.

“Mallam has been accused of offences in different courts. These charges are clearly bailable offences under Nigerian law. He has applied for bail several times,” she said.

“In the federal high court, he was granted bail with terms that are not viable. In federal high court in Kaduna, Justice Aikawa granted bail for two sureties — N200 million each with property worth N200 million in GRA Kaduna.

“He also said that the traditional council in Kaduna state must give attestation. Efforts to get this became impossible. The traditional council would not give that attestation. They gave no reason directly. They just said they are unable to do it.

“When you want to post a bail, you have to do property verification and submit the original certificate. Before you submit your original certificate, you need to go to the land registry and verify it.

“The land registry in Kaduna was shut down at that period. We were stuck in the mud. Every effort to get that became impossible.”

On the bail application granted at the federal high court in Abuja, Asiya said some of the terms for the civil servant surety were impossible to meet as the surety was required to provide property in the Asokoro or Maitama areas of the country’s capital city.

She added that even if any civil servant has the property and the assets to meet the bail conditions, nobody wants to put themselves forward on account of the scrutiny that would follow.

“I don’t want to speculate but as a Nigerian and human beings, I don’t think it is wrong if I say that there must be some politics going on,” she added.

She said el-Rufai returned to Nigeria to honour invitations from law enforcement agencies, adding that if he had intended to evade trial, he would have remained abroad.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is prosecuting el-Rufai on separate criminal charges before the Kaduna high court and the federal high court in Kaduna.

The Department of State Services (DSS) is also prosecuting the former governor before the federal high court in Abuja over allegations of wiretapping.

Asiya el-Rufai: My husband’s detention political — bail conditions difficult to meet

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