Phone-Tapping Charge: Court grants El-Rufai N100m bail, seizes passport

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, ABUJA

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday granted N100 million bail to the detained immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who is facing trial over the alleged unlawful interception of the phone communications of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.

As part of the bail conditions, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik ordered the defendant to produce a surety who must be a federal civil servant not below Grade Level 17.

According to the court, the surety must not only be resident in either the Maitama or Asokoro highbrow districts of Abuja but must also deposit the original Certificate of Occupancy of a landed property not valued below the bail sum.

It held that the surety must also provide evidence of receipt of salary for at least three months with an authenticated letter from the manager of a bank within the jurisdiction of the court.

Furthermore, the court directed the surety to depose an affidavit of means and equally submit a recent passport photograph to its registry.

It added that a verification letter from the surety’s immediate department must be submitted alongside a tax clearance certificate covering the last six months.

The defendant was further mandated to surrender his valid international passports and not travel out of the country without permission.

Justice Abdulmalik ordered the defendant to report to the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS) every last Friday of the month by 10 a.m. to sign an attendance register, pending the determination of the case.

The trial judge warned that failure to comply with any of the conditions would lead to an automatic revocation of the bail.

Besides, the former governor was directed to submit a letter of attestation from the chairman of the Kaduna Traditional Council, even as it ordered an accelerated hearing of the case.

El-Rufai, who was governor between 2015 and 2023 and also Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, faces a five-count amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/99/2026.

The DSS alleged that he committed the crime with some people who are currently on the run.

It told the court that the defendant admitted on February 13, when he appeared as a guest on Arise TV Station’s Prime Time Programme in Abuja, that he aligned with others and unlawfully intercepted the phone communications of the NSA, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under section 12(1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2024.

The security agency further alleged that the defendant had, in the course of the television interview, stated that he knew and related to a certain individual who had unlawfully intercepted the NSA’s telephone communications without reporting the person to the relevant security agencies.

By failing to report the crime, El-Rufai was said to have committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 27 (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Amendment Act, 2024.

More so, it was alleged that the defendant, while acting in cahoots with others that are still at large, used technical equipment that compromised public safety and national security and instilled reasonable apprehension of insecurity among Nigerians, following the unlawful interception of the NSA’s calls.

He was accused of committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 131(2) of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.

Though the prosecution initially entered a three-count charge against the defendant, at the resumed proceedings on Thursday, it got the court’s nod to replace it with an amended charge.

El-Rufai is currently facing multiple cases in both Abuja and Kaduna State.

He had, in his reaction to what he described as an attempt by operatives of the DSS to “abduct” him at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on February 12, 2026, upon returning from Cairo, insisted that the security agency was being instigated by the ICPC, which he said had received a directive from the NSA, Ribadu, to detain him.

The former governor claimed the information got to him through someone who listened in on the NSA’s telephone conversations.

In a motion he filed to challenge his trial, El-Rufai gave 17 reasons why the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/99/2026, which the DSS entered against him, should be quashed by the court.

Aside from his argument that the charge was incompetent and legally defective, the former governor argued that the DSS has no legal backing to elevate a “casual remark” he made during a television interview to “a confession” that he had indeed tapped the NSA’s telephone line as alleged.

He argued that the statement he made on Arise TV did not constitute a confessional statement in law, saying for a statement to be admissible as a confession, “it must be made under caution, voluntarily, and in circumstances that satisfy the Judges’ Rules.”

El-Rufai maintained that statements he made in the course of his television interview were “without any caution or warning, in a voluntary public discussion and without the protections afforded to suspects in custody”.

“A casual remark in a television programme cannot be elevated to a judicial confession,” he further argued.

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