Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have taken Nasir el-Rufai into custody after the former governor of Kaduna spent two nights with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), sources have informed TheCable.
Multiple sources said el-Rufai was picked up from the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday night by the secret police.
Insiders said during his questioning at the anti-graft agency, investigators made several attempts to obtain a written statement from the former governor, but he repeatedly declined to provide one.
On Monday, the former governor presented himself at the EFCC headquarters following an invitation regarding alleged financial improprieties during his tenure as governor of Kaduna state between 2015 and 2023.
In 2024, the Kaduna assembly indicted el-Rufai over the alleged diversion of N423 billion in public funds and money laundering and demanded that he be investigated by anti-graft agencies.
The former Kaduna governor has also been invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Last Thursday, security operatives attempted to arrest el-Rufai at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, when he touched down from Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
El-Rufai would later allege that the ICPC, at Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser’s instruction, asked the Department of State Services (DSS) officials to arrest him upon arrival.
On Saturday, during an interview on Prime Time, an Arise Television programme, el-Rufai said “someone wiretapped” Ribadu’s phone, allowing him to listen to the NSA directing security operatives to effect his arrest.
Sources told TheCable that the DSS action is not connected to the EFCC probe but is due to a “security matter”.
“He has a case to answer regarding an escalating security matter,” a senior security official told TheCable. “This is not related to the EFCC investigation. It is a separate matter entirely.”
