Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has been released from the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, according to his family, after weeks of detention over allegations of financial misconduct. The development was disclosed on Friday by his son, Bashir El-Rufai, in a post on X, and later reported by multiple Nigerian media outlets.
Bashir announced the release in an emotional message on social media, describing his father’s detention as unlawful and thanking supporters who had stood by the family. The post drew immediate attention because it came just hours after news broke that El-Rufai’s mother, Hajiya Umma El-Rufai, had died in Cairo, Egypt, after an illness. President Bola Tinubu also issued a condolence message on Friday, confirming her death and commiserating with the former governor and his family.
Punch reported that El-Rufai’s temporary release was granted to enable him participate in his mother’s funeral rites. That framing is more specific than earlier reports based only on Bashir’s post and suggests the former governor’s freedom may be conditional rather than a final end to the case against him. As of late Friday, there was no fresh public statement from the ICPC setting out the exact terms of the release.
El-Rufai has been in anti-graft custody since February 2026 following investigations into alleged financial misconduct. Reports indicate that he was first held after leaving the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and was subsequently remanded by court order in the ICPC case. The commission said on March 18 that his detention remained lawful and was backed by a remand order extended on March 5, after an earlier bid by his legal team to set it aside was dismissed.
The circumstances of his release therefore add a new layer to an already contentious case that has attracted criticism from his family, lawyers and political supporters. The Cable also reported that Bashir later deleted his post announcing the release, adding another measure of uncertainty to the public narrative, even though other outlets maintained that El-Rufai had indeed left ICPC custody.
For now, the immediate focus is on the family’s bereavement. But the broader legal and political questions surrounding El-Rufai’s detention — and any next steps from the ICPC — remain unresolved
