El-Rufai’s wife and son react as ICPC claims it retrieved phone-tapping devices in his house

The wife and the son of former Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has denied reports claiming sophisticated phone-tapping were found in his house during a raid.

The ICPC on February 19, raided El-Rufai’s Abuja residence. According to the agency, suspected wiretapping equipment allegedly capable of intercepting private conversations and accessing sensitive security documents were found in the ex-governor’s house.

The commission disclosed this in court processes filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where El-Rufai is challenging his detention and seeking enforcement of his fundamental human rights.

In a statement released today, March 2, the son of the former governor, Mohammed El-Rufai, said the claim that the agency found phone-tapping equipments are false.  

The statement in part reads

‘’The Fictitious Phone Tapping Equipment and List of Seized Items

The ICPC’s press statement presented a list of seized equipment designed to conjure images of espionage and criminality. This list is a work of fiction, for reasons which will soon become known.

a) Endorsement: This list has not been endorsed by Mallam el-Rufai or his legal representatives.

b) Reality: WE WERE PRESENT WHEN THESE ITEMS WERE SEIZED. No equipment other than old discarded personal mobile phones some dating back as much as 20 years, storage devices like flash drives and laptops, which are standard possessions of any 21st-century citizen, were seized from the property. The alleged “sophisticated tapping equipment” and “sensitive security documents” exist only in the fevered imagination of the ICPC and its press team.

3. The Tainted Foundation: A Forged Warrant:

The entire foundation of this investigation is rotten. The search that purportedly uncovered these phantom items originated from a legally defective warrant. We have credible evidence that the warrant was a forgery, fraudulently procured and presented by a Magistrate who was, bizarrely, purporting to sit in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory. An illegality of this magnitude—a forgery at the very inception of a state-sponsored search—renders everything that follows it inadmissible and void. Our lawyers have challenged this illegitimate warrant in a court of competent jurisdiction. The ICPC is welcome to explain in court how a Magistrate conjured the jurisdiction of a High Court to sign a warrant based on false premises.”

His wife, Hadiza, also took to X to dismiss claims that phone tapping devices were found in his house.