‘Don’t forget my bank tokens’ — Hadiza el-Rufai taunts ICPC over wiretapping equipment claim

2026-03-03 - 15:07

Hadiza el-Rufai, wife of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, has mocked claims by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that wiretapping equipment was recovered from their Abuja residence. In a post on X on Tuesday, she reacted to media reports quoting the ICPC as saying electronic magnetic devices capable of tapping conversations were retrieved during a search of the property. “You forgot to mention that you also took away my bank tokens,” she wrote. “I swear to God, they are not wiretapping equipment.” Vanguard had reported that the ICPC had, in court filings before the Federal Capital Territory High Court, disclosed the documents and electronic devices it said were recovered from the Abuja home of the former governor while urging the court to dismiss his N1bn fundamental rights enforcement suit. The commission maintained that its operatives acted lawfully under a valid search warrant issued on February 18 and executed on February 19 between 1:37pm and 3:56pm at 12 Mambilla Street, Asokoro, Abuja. According to the ICPC, its officials were accompanied by personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, and the search was witnessed by Hadiza el-Rufai and the former governor’s son, Mohammed el-Rufai. The commission listed items allegedly recovered to include investor account statements, asset declaration forms, certificates of registration for business entities, corporate compliance records, client Know-Your-Customer files, and documents linked to the African Democratic Congress welfare secretary. It also cited records of domestic and foreign loans approved by the Kaduna State House of Assembly between 2015 and 2023, interim investigation reports involving el-Rufai and his associates, Ecobank Nigeria Plc share certificates, land documents, student financial services papers, valuation reports, deeds of assignment, irrevocable powers of attorney for multiple properties, Afri-Venture Capital Company documents, payment mandates and media materials from the former governor’s office. Electronic devices listed in the filings include nine flash drives, one memory card, seven hard drives, multiple laptops, including Apple MacBook Pro and Elumac Book Pro models, as well as several mobile phones such as Blackberry, Nokia N95, Toshiba, Samsung IDEOS and Google IDEOS devices. A tablet and chargers were also said to have been recovered. However, in a statement issued on Monday, the family described the claim of recovering wiretapping equipment as “falsehood”. “We were present when these items were seized,” the statement said. “No equipment other than old discarded personal mobile phones, some dating back as much as 20 years, and storage devices like flash drives and laptops, which are standard possessions of any 21st-century citizen, were removed from the property.” The family further accused the anti-graft agency of portraying el-Rufai’s decision to remain silent during questioning as non-cooperation, arguing that the 1999 Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to remain silent and that no adverse inference should be drawn from exercising that right. Recall that in February, el-Rufai had alleged that someone tapped the phone of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, enabling him to listen to a conversation in which he claimed the NSA ordered his arrest. He acknowledged that such action would be illegal but alleged that government agencies sometimes engage in similar practices without court orders.