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 imposed on the ex-Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister are not
“viable”.
El-Rufai’s wife recounted some of the difficulties the family is facing in an effort to meet the conditions set 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, Aisha 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.
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