The founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank and ANAP Business Jets, on Sunday fired a pointed broadside at the federal government, accusing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of conspiring to hold El-Rufai behind bars without charging him to court.

“Some of us have watched in disbelief as Government Agencies that we respected… appear to have conspired to incarcerate El-Rufai without charging him to Court, thereby violating the spirit & letter of the Nigerian Constitution,” Peterside wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

The outspoken banker noted that his intervention comes despite having publicly disagreed with El-Rufai during the former governor’s own controversial detention of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky in 2019 — a decision Peterside had criticised at the time. “Two wrongs do not make a right,” he said.

Peterside invoked a long personal history of speaking up for political detainees across Nigeria’s turbulent democratic journey, citing late MKO Abiola, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, activist lawyer Dele Farotimi, and journalist Omoyele Sowore as others he had previously defended.

He closed his post on a spiritual note, warning of accountability for those in power: “One day, the Lord will deliver us from wicked leaders.”

El-Rufai, who governed Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023, has been in detention amid a web of agency-level proceedings, but has yet to face formal charges in open court — a situation increasingly drawing criticism from civil society and prominent voices in Nigerian public life. (BusinessDay)