El-Rufai was arraigned on Wednesday before Justice Hauwa’u Buhari of the Federal High Court in Kaduna alongside his former Senior Special Adviser and Counsellor, Jimi Adebisi Lawal. Five companies were also listed as defendants in the case.
The companies are Singularity Network Security Limited, Solar Life Nigeria Limited, Knowledge Investment Nigeria Limited, Intercellular Nigeria Limited, and Noble Coast Resources Limited.
The case, filed under charge number FHC/KD/93C/2026, borders on corruption, money laundering, and financial misconduct.
ICPC also named Bashir El-Rufai, said to be an elder brother of the former governor, in one of the counts. He is currently at large.
The charges are linked to a contract for the procurement, survey planning, final design, and installation of a Closed-Circuit Television surveillance system across Kaduna metropolis.
According to the anti-graft agency, El-Rufai approved the contract worth N8,682,574,054.94 in favour of Singularity Network Security Limited while he was governor, despite claims that the company lacked the technical capacity and experience to handle the job.
The Commission said the approval breached public procurement laws and was unlawful.
Investigators alleged that money from the contract was moved through several companies and individuals between 2017 and 2022. ICPC told the court that over N2 billion suspected to be proceeds of crime passed through the companies named in the charge, in what it described as efforts to hide the source of the funds.
Part of count one reads:
“That you, MALLAM NASIR AHMAD EL-RUFAI sometime in December, 2015 or thereabout at Kaduna, Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being the Executive Governor of Kaduna State aided an act of corruption, when you approved the award of contract for the procurement of survey planning, final design and installation of CCTV at Kaduna metropolis in the reviewed sum of N8,682,574,054.94 to Messrs. Singularity Network Security Limited, a company with no requisite experience and in violation of procurement laws, which act you knew was unlawful and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 21(a) and punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”
Both El-Rufai and Lawal pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them.
Their lawyers asked the court to grant them bail pending trial.
Justice Buhari adjourned the matter to July 1, 2026, for ruling on the bail applications.
