A prominent northern human rights and anti-corruption activist has raised the alarm over what he describes as deliberately unachievable bail conditions imposed on former Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, demanding an urgent judicial review and warning that Nigeria’s judiciary is under international scrutiny.
Ibrahim Garba Wala, popularly known as IG Wala, cautioned the judiciary over what he described as impossible bail conditions given to the former governor, and called on the presiding judges handling El-Rufai’s matters to live up to their billing as the last hope of constitutional justice.
In a statement released on Saturday in Abuja, Wala was reacting to recent public comments by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, regarding the weaponisation of bail conditions across the country. Wala lamented that courts and law enforcement agencies have increasingly transformed bail from a constitutional mechanism to secure trial attendance into an instrument of punitive, pre-trial incarceration.
Wala argued that the stringent, near-impossible conditions attached to El-Rufai’s bail perfectly capture the institutional overreach condemned by the NBA leadership. He cited specific requirements, including multiple sureties who must be serving federal civil servants on Grade Level 17, demands for original Certificates of Occupancy for landed properties worth hundreds of millions of naira in high-end Abuja neighbourhoods such as Maitama and Asokoro, and restrictive check-in requirements at security headquarters.
Citing a precedent set by the Court of Appeal in Dasuki v. DG, SSS, Wala argued that expecting civil servants to provide multi-million naira properties is not only a logistical absurdity but also a flagrant violation of public service frameworks.
The activist alleged that by keeping El-Rufai structurally locked out of perfecting his bail, his detractors were achieving through judicial frustration what they could not legally justify. “The indefinite confinement of a citizen whose physical well-being is actively at risk. This is no longer about accountability; it has evolved into a calculated strategy of physical and psychological attrition,” Wala said.
His statement called for an immediate review of El-Rufai’s bail conditions to realistic, achievable parameters that, in his words, “do not require turning civil servants into real estate moguls.”
El-Rufai, who governed Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023, has been at the centre of a sweeping legal offensive since early 2026. He was arrested by the ICPC on or about February 18, 2026. Following the conclusion of investigations, the commission filed a 10-count charge against him and a co-defendant, Mr. Joel Adoga, before Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Kaduna, relating to alleged conversion and possession of proceeds of corruption, as well as money laundering offences. The prosecution alleges, among other things, that El-Rufai received ₦289,826,998.12 as severance allowance, significantly exceeding his lawful entitlement of ₦20,013,245 and also received $797,900 deposited into a domiciliary account from various individuals, with knowledge that the funds were proceeds of unlawful activities.
The Federal High Court in Kaduna admitted El-Rufai to bail in the sum of ₦200 million with two sureties in like sum, describing the conditions as “strict and extensive,” while ordering that he remain in ICPC custody until all bail conditions are fully met.
On May 6, 2026, proceedings resumed before Justice Aikawa on El-Rufai’s motion seeking a variation of those bail conditions. The ICPC opposed the application through a counter-affidavit. The court did, however, grant El-Rufai supervised access to medical facilities in Abuja, including dental and eye-care clinics.
In a parallel case at the Kaduna State High Court, the bail hearing was repeatedly adjourned, with the presiding judge shifting the date to the first week of June 2026. El-Rufai’s counsel, Ukpon Akpan, criticised the delays as “unnecessary” and “politically motivated.”
The ICPC and the judiciary have not publicly responded to Wala’s latest statement. El-Rufai’s trial continues to attract intense public and political attention across Nigeria.
