By ISAAC AREGBESOLA

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has explained why it is yet to charge the former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, to court after he was interrogated for three days.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that El-Rufai was held in EFCC’s custody for two nights, from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18, over corruption allegations levelled against him.

A source close to the commission told NAN that the former governor was still under investigation by the commission, hence he could not be charged to court yet.

The source said the commission would not rush to court over the allegation described as grievous, but would want to do a thorough and professional job on it before being charged to court.

“We are still investigating the former governor, we are yet to conclude our investigations, before he was released on bail last Wednesday.

“Though he was taken into custody by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), immediately we released him. We will still continue with our investigations after he is done with the ICPC.

“We will then charge him to court after the completion of our investigations of various allegations levelled against him,” the source said.

The former governor was initially held by the EFCC from Monday Feb. 16, when he honoured its invitation, until the night of Wednesday, Feb.18.

He was released on Wednesday night by the commission on administrative bail but later taken into custody by the ICPC.

One of his aides, Muyiwa Adekeye, had said in a statement that his principal as of Tuesday had spent nine days in the custody of the two anti-graft agencies.

Adekeye said that as of Monday, El-Rufai’s lawyers had not received any response from the ICPC, where he is currently being held, to an application for bail submitted on his behalf.

He added that the commission had also not shown them any remand order authorising his continued detention, in spite of what he described as the expiration of the 48-hour constitutional window for holding a person without charge. (NAN)

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