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Despite Court Order, DSS Takes El-rufai into Custody-Family

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By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa

The family of former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Monday, raised the alarm after the Department of State Services, DSS, officials allegedly took him into custody following a court sitting at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

According to the family, the action was in apparent breach of existing court orders directing that he remain in the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ICPC.

El-Rufai’s second wife, Hasiat, who addressed journalists outside the DSS facility, said the family was traumatized by the development and lived daily under the shadow of threats and surveillance.

“We now live in constant fear. Every day we get a threat — DSS is coming to raid your house, ICPC is coming to raid your house, police are coming to raid your house. You are being followed. Our phones are tapped,” she said.

She narrated that earlier in the day, el-Rufai had appeared before Justice Joyce AbdulMalik of the Federal High Court, who granted bail and stood the matter down until 1pm.

During the break, she said, he was briefly taken to the DSS facility — a move he resisted, insisting that two subsisting court orders from a Kaduna court directed that he be remanded with the ICPC.

“He said to them, I am not going to step down because there are two court orders that the Kaduna court gave that I should be remanded in ICPC. Why are you bringing me here? He said, I am not a furniture to be moved,” she recounted.

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She said he was subsequently returned to the ICPC, but that after the afternoon session — during which the prosecution sought an adjournment and the judge fixed a resumption for the following day — he was again brought to the DSS instead of being returned to ICPC custody.

As of the time she spoke, she said el-Rufai had refused to step out of the vehicle.

“He told them that if you want to take me inside DSS custody, you will have to physically force me into doing this, because you had an agreement.

“When Justice AbdulMalik said I should go to DSS in the first instance, we told her that there are subsisting orders. And she said, let DSS and ICPC go and decide who will keep him — and you people decided they are keeping him with ICPC.

“What has changed?” she queried.

Hasiat also disclosed that el-Rufai, who has been in custody for 91 days, had been denied access to his personal physicians in violation of a court order by Justice Aikawa of the Kaduna State High Court granting him unfettered access to his lawyers and doctors.

She explained that the ICPC’s own in-house doctor had recommended that el-Rufai run medical tests, after which it was agreed that the doctors would return to discuss the results with him.

That agreement, she said, was subsequently disregarded.

“When you see a doctor and you run tests, you are expected to see the doctor back so that he explains what the problem is. He was denied access to the doctor because in their own explanation, they said Malam was not aware that the doctor was coming. I asked Malam — Malam said nobody told him,” she said.

The family’s demands were clear: el-Rufai’s immediate return to ICPC custody in line with the existing court orders, restoration of his access to personal physicians, and an end to what they described as psychological torment of both the former governor and his family.

El-Rufai’s son and member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bello el-Rufai, was unequivocal that the entire affair was politically motivated, questioning the stringency of bail conditions that he said were deliberately designed to be impossible to meet.

“Who keeps a person for 91 days? Why were the terms of the bail so stringent that it is practically impossible for anybody to meet? Why do you have to say that Kaduna State Council of Chiefs will have to give an attestation? Why are we saying that it has to be a government staff of level 17, with a house in Asokoro or Maitama? Which civil servant has N100 million?

“What are we trying to do — are we trying to make people come out so that they can be targeted too?” he asked.

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You’re a Hypocrite!” – Bashir el-Rufai Goes Nuclear on Brother Bello Over Uba Sani Loyalty

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By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa

 

Bashir el-Rufai, son of former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai, unleashed a barrage of slurs at his brother, Bello, on Saturday morning.

Bashir, in a series of expletive-laden posts on X, attacked Bello over his recent political moves, accusing him of abandoning the family while he was aligned with Uba Sani, his father’s successor.

Sani, the incumbent governor of Kaduna, was a former ally of el-Rufai, but both men fell out after the former won the 2023 governorship election.

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Following el-Rufai’s resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in March 2025, Bello, who represents Kaduna north federal constituency, remained in the ruling party.

However, on May 7, 2026, Bello eventually defected from the APC to join his father in the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Commenting on Saturday, Bashir alleged that his brother remained loyal to Sani until he realised he was being “dumped”, after which he began talking about family loyalty.

“Stuck with Uba Sani until he realized he is being dumped then suddenly remembered family loyalty and moved to ADC. Where was he since? Purely serving his interest,” Bashir wrote.

He accused his brother of being neutral while others criticised the Kaduna state governor.

Bashir also alleged that Bello asked him to “pipe down my criticism of his former boss,” presumably Sani.

One of Bashir’s tweets. The expletives have been redacted.
“At this stage in my life, I hate nonsense,” he added, while calling his brother a hypocrite.

Bashir also made several other allegations against his brother in the X posts, some of which were later deleted.

The allegations bordered on fertility status and unsubstantiated drug use.

Their father, el-Rufai, has been in custody since February 2026 over alleged financial impropriety during his tenure as governor of Kaduna between 2015 and 2023.

On April 13, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) arraigned him at the Kaduna high court on an amended nine-count charge bordering on alleged fraud and abuse of office.

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

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Court Ultimatum Forces FBI to Hand Over Tinubu’s Fraud Records to Judge—But Keeps Them Hidden from Public

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By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has hand delivered records of President Bola Tinubu’s 1993 drug-trafficking and money-laundering case to Judge Howell Beryl of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying they are for her eyes only, court filings seen by Peoples Gazette indicated.

The FBI secretly submitted the records on Friday to avoid disobeying a court order while sidelining transparency campaigner, Aaron Greenspan, who petitioned the Bureau for the Nigerian leader’s records in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Following years of foot-dragging on a FOI petition filed by Mr Greenspan in 2023, the FBI on Friday complied with a court order directing it to release Mr Tinubu’s records. Mr Greenspan worked with Nigerian journalist, David Hundeyin, to file the petition in 2023.

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The records submitted as “under seal, ex parte, in camera declarations were hand delivered to the Court on August 28, 2026 in compliance with this Court’s Minute Order dated August 20, 2026,” filings showed.

Mrs Beryl lost her patience with the FBI after the bureau missed several deadlines , giving excuses on why it could not immediately provide the records.

She issued August 28 as the final ultimatum to the FBI, which prompted the FBI’s decision to comply, showing it “in camera” to the judge alone, without carrying along the petitioner.

Earlier this week , FBI claimed that submitting the records would violate Mr Tinubu’s privacy and argued that FOI was established to screen the operations and records of government institutions, not necessarily private individuals.

For decades, Mr Tinubu has avoided speaking on the drug affair, refusing to clarify controversies surrounding his involvement in a case that saw him forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars to the U.S. government.

Mr Tinubu also sought to block the release of his records, asserting his rivals only sought to use them to discredit him in a Nigerian presidential election. He begged the court to protect his privacy rights.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 2023 released documents holding Mr Tinubu’s encounter with American authorities over allegations of narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

 

 

 

 

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NFF President Gusau Resigns

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By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa

Nigeria Football Federation President, Ibrahim Gusau, has resigned from office, announcing his decision during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the Super Eagles news account on X (@SSE_NGA), Gusau was joined by board members of the Executive Committee in resignation.

The crisis follows the Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a first in Nigeria’s history, after a 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the play-off.

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The Falcons had earlier been knocked out of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations at the quarter-final stage by Cameroon. The Super Eagles also failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

The NFF has separately faced scrutiny over its handling of a ₦17bn Federal Government intervention fund released in 2024, as well as a fact-finding committee report alleging that board members and officials influenced national team invitations for financial gain.

Gusau’s exit comes ahead of the NFF’s elective congress, scheduled for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

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