A federal high court in Abuja has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai against the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and three other government agencies. The ruling, delivered by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on Thursday, found that El-Rufai's actions constituted an abuse of court process due to the filing of similar suits within a short timeframe.

El-Rufai had sought to prevent the ICPC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) from freezing his bank accounts and seizing his assets. He claimed that the assets in question were acquired through lawful severance pay received after his tenure as governor from 2015 to 2023.

The court's dismissal was based on the finding that El-Rufai had filed similar cases in both the Federal High Court and the FCT High Court, which posed a risk of conflicting judgements. Justice Abdulmalik emphasized that the judicial system cannot be used to obstruct law enforcement agencies from carrying out their statutory responsibilities. She described El-Rufai's suit as speculative and lacking in merit, ultimately striking out the names of the EFCC, DSS, and AGF as respondents in the case.

The ICPC argued that El-Rufai had fragmented a single ongoing criminal investigation into three separate lawsuits, which were filed within just 12 days. The commission highlighted that El-Rufai had initiated one suit on February 20 challenging a search warrant, another on March 3 contesting a remand order, and the third on February 24, which was the subject of this dismissal.

In his dismissed suit, El-Rufai sought a perpetual injunction to protect his assets and demanded N1 billion in damages, citing psychological distress and reputational harm from any potential unlawful forfeiture. He also requested N100 million to cover legal costs. However, the AGF's representative argued that an interim forfeiture order does not equate to a final forfeiture order and that the rights of El-Rufai were not violated by the legal actions of the ICPC, EFCC, and DSS during their investigations.

This ruling comes amidst ongoing legal challenges faced by El-Rufai, who is also undergoing separate trials initiated by the DSS and ICPC. His bail application was denied earlier in July, and his family has since appealed to President Bola Tinubu for assistance in his case.