• As Prosecution Fails to Present Ex-Governor of Kaduna in Court

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday pushed the arraignment of former Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai to April 23 as the prosecution failed to produce the former governor in court.

The opposition leader, who is one of the movers of the African Democratic Congress could not appear in court as scheduled before Justice Joyce AbdulMalik as operatives of the Directorate of State Security failed to bring him to court.

His media adviser, Muyiwa Adekeye, had gone to his X handle to confirm how the prosecutor in the matter requested the court to grant a two-week adjournment to enable the DSS produce El-Rufai who is in the custody of the ICPC.

This was however objected by El-Rufai’s lead counsel, Wole Iyamu (SAN), who told the court that the DSS does not require any adjournment to produce the ex-Kaduna governor from the custody of a sister agency.

In her ruling, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik adjourned the case to 23 April 2026, a two month adjournment, longer than the two weeks requested by the prosecution counsel.

This adjournment meant that the two applications to quash the DSS charges and the bail application were not taken.

Recall that the DSS  had last weel filed the cybercrime charges against El-Rufai over his admittance of tapping into the phone of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

The ex-Kaduna governor’s counsel had in reaction filed for the  dismissal of the charges.

El-Rufai has been in the custody of agencies of the Federal Government since 16 February 2026 when he voluntarily reported at the EFCC.

The ICPC took custody of him at night on 18 February and has not granted him administrative bail.