An Abuja Federal High Court has dismissed a suit brought by Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, who sought to prevent the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and three other law enforcement bodies from freezing his bank accounts or impounding his assets.
Presiding Judge Joyce Abdulmalik dismissed the legal action on Thursday, ruling that it constituted an abuse of court process.
The former governor filed the lawsuit against the ICPC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), who were listed as first to fourth respondents.
In her verdict, Abdulmalik concurred with the respondents that El-Rufai had brought similar actions before both the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court and the Federal High Court. She emphasized that judicial processes cannot be used to obstruct law enforcement agencies from performing their statutory obligations.
Describing the action as speculative and lacking merit, Abdulmalik further determined that the filing revealed no reasonable cause of action against the EFCC, DSS, and AGF, subsequently striking out their names from the matter.
Oluwole Iyamu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), submitted the suit (FHC/ABJ/CS/368/2026) on February 24. It requested the court to restrain the agencies from taking steps toward freezing El-Rufai’s accounts or seizing his assets until the substantive matter was determined. The filing also asked for an interim injunction directing all parties to maintain the status quo to avoid an irreversible outcome before a final ruling.
El-Rufai maintained that the severance pay he received after concluding his tenure as governor from 2015 to 2023 could not reasonably be suspected to constitute proceeds of unlawful activity. He asked the court to declare that properties purchased with those funds were legally acquired and owned by him.
Additionally, the suit sought a perpetual injunction to prevent the respondents from freezing, attaching, seizing, forfeiting, or interfering with his bank accounts and property. It demanded N1 billion in general, exemplary, and aggravated damages for anticipated rights violations, psychological distress, and reputational harm, as well as N100 million to cover legal fees and associated expenses.
Challenging the filing, the ICPC presented a preliminary objection asking the court to dismiss the suit as incompetent and an abuse of process. The commission stated that El-Rufai’s arrest, the search of his residence, and the anticipated asset tracing and freezing were part of a single ongoing criminal investigation. The ICPC argued that the former governor had split his claims into three separate suits across two court systems within a 12-day window.
Specifically, the ICPC noted that El-Rufai filed suit FHC/ABJ/CS/345/2026 at the Federal High Court on February 20 to contest a search warrant and enforce his rights. He then filed suit FCT/HC/CV/950/2026 at the FCT High Court on March 3 to challenge a remand order. The commission stressed that these concurrent filings created a risk of conflicting judgements from courts of coordinate jurisdiction.
The DSS also asked for the suit to be struck out and for its name to be removed from the case due to a lack of reasonable cause of action against the agency.
In a counter-affidavit, the AGF argued that the office is only a necessary party in suits involving the Federal Government directly. Maimuna Lami-Shiru, Director of Civil Litigation and Public Law representing the AGF, labelled the claims in El-Rufai’s affidavit as speculative.
She noted that an interim forfeiture order was not a final forfeiture order but rather a measure that could enable the ICPC to continue its investigation, adding that an application for such an order did not violate El-Rufai’s rights. Lami-Shiru stated that the ICPC, EFCC, and DSS are legally authorized to apply to competent courts for forfeiture orders during investigations, and urged the court to throw out the case due to the duplicate filings in separate courts.
