Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the ICPC, has arraigned former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai and six others on 11 counts of alleged corruption and money laundering tied to a controversial ₦8.68 billion CCTV contract.
The cameras were supposed to watch the people. Now, it seems, they’re watching him.
Former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai found himself in the defendant’s dock this week, arraigned alongside six others by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on an 11-count amended charge covering alleged corruption, money laundering and related offences.
Joining el-Rufai in the hot seat are his former aide Jimi Lawal and five companies — Singularity Network Security Limited, Solar Life Nigeria Limited, Knowledge Investment Nigeria Limited, Intercellular Nigeria Limited, and Noble Coast Resources Limited. A seventh name hangs over the case: Bashir el-Rufai, the former governor’s elder brother, listed in one count but currently at large.
According to The Cable, the proceedings unfolded before Justice Hauwa’u Buhari at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.
At the heart of the case is a ₦8,682,574,054.94 CCTV surveillance contract for Kaduna Metropolis. The ICPC alleges el-Rufai unlawfully approved the award to Singularity Network Security Limited — a company it claims lacked the required experience and qualifications — in direct violation of public procurement laws.
It gets worse. The agency further alleges that over ₦2 billion was “knowingly received” through a web of transactions funnelled across the five companies between 2017 and 2022. That’s a lot of moving parts for what was supposed to be a straightforward infrastructure contract.
El-Rufai and Lawal, however, aren’t going down without a fight. Both men entered pleas of not guilty.
The case has been adjourned, with the legal battle now firmly underway. For a former governor once regarded as one of Nigeria’s most outspoken reformers, the courtroom drama marks a stunning fall from grace — all caught, fittingly, in the glare of public scrutiny.
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