Nigeria: El-Rufai files N1bn lawsuit against ICPC over ‘unlawful invasion’ of Abuja residence

By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria

Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has filed a N1 billion fundamental rights enforcement lawsuit against the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over the alleged unlawful invasion of his Abuja residence.

In the lawsuit, El-Rufai, through his lawyers led by Oluwole Iyamu, SAN, is seeking a declaration that the search warrant issued on February 4 by the Chief Magistrate, Magistrate’s Court of the FCT, authorizing the search and seizure at his residence was invalid, null, and void.

He also prayed the court to declare that the invasion and search of his residence on February 19 by agents of ICPC and the Inspector-General of Police (I-G) was a gross violation of his fundamental rights to dignity, personal liberty, fair hearing, and privacy.

El-Rufai is seeking N1 billion in damages, including N300 million as compensatory damages for psychological trauma, emotional distress, and loss of personal security; N400 million as exemplary damages to deter future misconduct by law enforcement agencies; and N300 million as aggravated damages for the malicious, high-handed, and oppressive nature of the respondents’ actions.

He also wants the court to order the ICPC and I-G to return all items seized from his premises during the unlawful search and to restrain them from relying on any evidence obtained during the search in any investigation, prosecution, or proceedings involving him.

In his grounds of argument, Iyamu argued 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.