The African Democratic Party (ADC) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being behind the continuous stay of former governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai in custody.

National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, who stated this during an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, said that the opposition party believes that the government will not release El-Rufai until after the 2027 elections.

“And I say let me establish the principle that ADC is not opposed to anybody who has a legitimate case to answer, from being prosecuted, but when you are holding someone in custody for bailable offences, and you proceed to continue to arraign that person and continue to set conditions for bail that are almost impossible for this person to meet, it creates room for us to believe that you deliberately intend to hold this person in perpetuity and you are just looking for legal loopholes to hold this person.

“What I can tell you is that the thinking within the ADC is that the APC government has concluded that they will not release Malam Nasir El-Rufai until after the elections. That’s what we believe in,” he said.

“That is the plan, and that’s what they plan to do because they know that with Malam Nasir El-Rufai freed, the opposition is stronger, and they know that if they release him, he is going to remind them of certain things that they would rather forget.

“So that is why they want to hold him. And I’m telling you that we in the opposition believe that they are doing everything to make sure that Malam Nasir El-Rufai remains in custody until after the elections,” Abdullahi said.

Lamenting El-Rufai’s health condition, the ADC spokesperson said that the President would be held responsible “if anything happens” to the former Kaduna governor.

“Now, having said that, this person has a medical condition. You may not intend it. But if you don’t allow this person to be, if you don’t allow Malam Nasir El-Rufai to receive the requisite medical help that he needed — because according to the report we got from the family, he was at the National Hospital a few days ago, and the hospital advised that he should be, he should be kept under watch because his health was failing.

“And we have said it, and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, our presidential candidate, has said it. If anything happens to Malam Nasir El-Rufai in detention, President Bola Tinubu will be held personally responsible because the buck stops on the table. And we say that there is a political prisoner in Nigeria today, and his name is Malam Nasir El-Rufai,” he said.

Abdullahi further said that every case against the ADC was orchestrated to make Nigerians not have a choice in the 2027 general election.

He said that the APC government was interested in the 2027 polls, rather than being concerned about Nigeria’s problems, describing the Renewed Hope Agenda as just a slogan that does not mean anything.

According to Abdullahi, it was the desire of the opposition leaders to play a new type of politics that led to the coalition in the ADC.

El-Rufai is facing a case of alleged financial misconduct during his tenure as governor, brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) at the Federal High Court.

He is also facing trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja in a case of allege wire-tapping brought against him by the Department of State Services (DSS). (Channels TV)

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