Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday arrived at the Kaduna State High Court for the hearing of his bail application over a nine-count charge filed against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Naija News reports that El-Rufai is facing allegations bordering on fraud and abuse of office.
Proceedings were held behind closed doors as journalists were barred from entering the courtroom during the session.
Sources at the court who spoke with Daily Trust disclosed that the original charges filed by the ICPC involved both El-Rufai and one Amadu Sule.
However, Sule’s name was removed after the charges were amended by the prosecution.
The development was confirmed by the former governor’s counsel, Ubong Akpan (SAN), who spoke with journalists after the sitting.
Akpan said the prosecution amended the charges and dropped Sule as a defendant, leaving El-Rufai as the sole person standing trial.
He added that the hearing could not proceed because the defence team was served with the amended charges in court during the sitting.
Akpan said, “The charges are entirely new to us. They were given to us this morning while we were already in court. That is why the matter could not proceed.
“We will analyse the charges and make our position known. For now, there is nothing we can do until we have fully reviewed them.”
The presiding judge, Justice Darius Khobo, subsequently adjourned the case to April 14 for the hearing of El-Rufai’s bail application.
Details of the amended charges show that the ICPC accused the former governor of several infractions during his tenure in office.
One of the counts alleges that El-Rufai induced the Kaduna State Government to release about ₦11bn to an unregistered entity for a light rail project that was never executed.
The commission also alleged that he approved and received about ₦289.8m as severance allowance, far above the legally entitled amount of about ₦20m, thereby conferring a corrupt advantage on himself.
In another count, the ICPC accused him of mismanaging over $1.08m from a World Bank loan to Kaduna State in violation of the loan agreement.
The anti-corruption agency further alleged that El-Rufai conspired with an associate, said to be at large, to offer monetary inducement to federal investigators in a bid to compromise an ongoing probe involving a private firm.
Other allegations include the unlawful award of a ₦4.6bn CCTV contract in Kaduna metropolis in violation of procurement laws, as well as conferring undue advantage on an associate through the contract.
The former governor is also expected to appear before the Federal High Court in Kaduna over separate charges filed by the ICPC.