Security officers detained family members of Nasir El-Rufai, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, in Lagos, on Monday, according to the account of Mr. El-Rufai.
Four of them, Asia El–Rufai (his wife), and their three children, Ahmed (nine), Bilkisu (seven), and Mustapha (three) were returning from Dubai where they had gone to celebrate the Muslim Eid el-fitr festival when “[the] State Security Service (SSS) invited them for dialogue and held them for an hour,” Mr. El Rufai said in a telephone interview.
No official responses could be obtained at press time, and efforts to reach the Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili, failed. She did not respond to text messages either.
Mrs. El Rufai declined comments on the matter, but her husband told NEXT that “they came here to Dubai to spend the Sallah holidays with me. So, they were here for about eight to 10 days. They left Dubai this morning. When they got to the airport, the immigration officials told them to wait after collecting their passport and returned the passport to them after about 30 minutes.”
Speaking more on the ordeal, the former minister said, “by that time, their luggage had arrived, they got their luggage and were about to leave when somebody from [the] SSS accosted them and asked my wife to hand over the passports to him. And she handed over the passports to him. He took the passports, and took my wife and the children and they were made to wait about an hour without any explanation.”
Mr. El-Rufai said he was “naturally concerned about this development” which he characterised as a “slippery slope on the political landscape when family members can be held hostage to resolve political differences.”
His words: “This is unprecedented and very strange and it shows the extent to which this administration can go just to harass and traumatise anyone related to anyone that is supposedly opposed to them. It’s really sad, and there is no basis for it whatsoever whether in law or in our administrative procedures. It is just a reflection of how petty this government has become that even wives and children are part of the political persecution that has been unleashed on me.”
Mr. El-Rufai said the State Security Service officials offered no explanation.
“They were not given any reason. They were just made to wait while the officer said he is trying to get clearance from Abuja. Nobody gave them any reason. By the time they collected the passport, immigration had already stamped the passport anyway. And so there was no issue, and no explanation was given” he said.
Speaking on his next line of action, Mr. El-Rufai said “my lawyers are already filing a petition against the government on the matter of the denial to renew my passport. We are filing a suit on that so we will now add this among the reliefs that we want. We want the courts to stop the Federal Government from violating our constitutional rights. I have the right to a passport because I am a Nigerian. [President] Yar’Adua cannot cancel my nationality,” he said.
The Nigerian High Commission in London on September 15 refused to renew Mr. El-Rufai’s passport, saying, it was acting on orders from Abuja.
The former minister is also on a wanted persons list posted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC which filed an eight count charge against him in May. The charges which made claims of abuse of office, corruption, and gratification are before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Mr. El-Rufai has refuted the allegations saying that they are politically motivated because of his opposition to the government of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
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