Court grants ICPC leave to examine electronic devices recovered from El-Rufai’s house
The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an order permitting the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to access and analyse about 14 sets of electronic
The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an order permitting the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to access and analyse about 14 sets of electronic devices recovered by its operatives during a search of the Abuja home of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El Rufai.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik issued the order yesterday while ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by the ICPC and moved by its lawyer, Dr. Osuobeni Akponimisingha.
The commission said it needed to access the devices for inspection, forensic examination and extraction of data in furtherance of its ongoing investigation of the former governor.
The devices include a Sony HD-EGS storage device, an ITB Transcend storage device, a Toshiba storage device, a Samsung mobile phone, a Nokia mobile phone – N958GB, a Blackberry mobile phone device and a Google IDEOS phone.
Others are a Samsung storage device – SPO802N, a Remarkable tablet, an Apple MacBook Pro – black, a Seagate FreeAgent Desk external drive, a ZTE mobile phone, 10 pieces of flash drives and a Microcell memory card.
Justice Abdulmalik, in the ruling, granted the commission access to the gadgets “for inspection, forensic examination and forensic extraction of data, including public documents, WhatsApp conversations, text messages, pictures, call logs and related information, and to analyse same forensically or otherwise from the said electronic devices which were seized in the course of investigation for the purpose of investigation activity.”
El-Rufai is currently before the same court challenging the search of his house and seeking, among others, N1 billion in compensation.
Listed as respondents in the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/345/2026, are the ICPC; the Chief Magistrate at the Magistrate’s Court of the FCT, Abuja; the Inspector-General of Police (IGP); and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
El-Rufai is challenging the propriety of the recent search of his Asokoro, Abuja residence by agents of the ICPC, during which some items were recovered.
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The former governor, who is seeking a number of reliefs, wants the court to declare that the search warrant issued on February 4 by the Chief Magistrate of the Magistrate’s Court of the FCT (2nd respondent), authorising the search of his residence and seizure of items, was invalid, null and void.
He also wants a declaration that the search warrant is “null and void for lack of particularity, material drafting errors, ambiguity in execution parameters, overbreadth and absence of probable cause, thereby constituting an unlawful and unreasonable search in violation of Section 37 of the Constitution.”
El-Rufai is urging the court to declare that the alleged invasion and search of his residence at House 12, Mambilla Street, Aso Drive, Abuja, on February 19 at about 2 pm by agents of the ICPC and the IGP, who were armed with the said warrant, amounted to a gross violation of his rights to dignity of the human person, personal liberty, fair hearing and privacy under Sections 34, 35, 36 and 37 of the Constitution.
He is also asking the court to award N1,000,000,000.00 (one billion naira) “as general, exemplary and aggravated damages against the respondents jointly and severally for the violations of the applicant’s fundamental rights, including trespass, unlawful seizure and the resultant psychological trauma, humiliation, distress, infringement of privacy and reputational harm.”
He contends that the search warrant was fundamentally defective, lacking specificity in the description of items to be seized, containing material typographical errors, ambiguous execution terms, overbroad directives and no verifiable probable cause.
He argued that the lack of specificity in the warrant contravenes Sections 143–148 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, Section 36 of the ICPC Act 2000 and constitutional protections against arbitrary intrusions.
According to him, Section 143 of the ACJA requires that an application for a search warrant be supported by information in writing and on oath, setting forth reasonable grounds for suspicion, which he said was absent in this case, as evidenced by the incomplete initiating clause.
He said Section 144 mandates particular descriptions of the place to be searched and the items sought to prevent general warrants, adding that the search was conducted without legal justification and in a manner that inflicted humiliation and distress.
El-Rufai further argued that execution of the said invalid warrant on February 19 resulted in an unlawful invasion of his premises, constituting violations of the rights to dignity (Section 34), personal liberty (Section 35), fair hearing (Section 36) and privacy (Section 37) of the Constitution.
