ABUJA − Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said yesterday it was questioning opposition politician Nasir El-Rufai, a prominent critic of president Bola Tinubu. 

The authorities launched court proceedings on Monday against El- Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state, after he said on Nigerian television he had tapped the phone of Tinubu’s national security adviser. 

Local media reported that he was being questioned about the alleged misuse of 432 billion naira (US$319 million) during his tenure as governor of Kaduna from 2015 to 2023. He was summoned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and appeared voluntarily, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale told AFP yesterday. 

“He was invited, and he honoured the invitation,” Oyewale said. 

“He is being interviewed now.” El-Rufai told the TV channel Arise News on Friday that he had intercepted calls from Tinubu’s aide, Nuhu Ribadu, whom he accused of using the security services as his “personal tools”. 

He also said the West African country’s domestic intelligence agency, DSS, had tried to arrest him at Abuja airport the day before, but he had refused to go with them. 

El-Rufai, who recently declared that he was still considering whether to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, said the anti-corruption commission had “procured the DSS to abduct me for them”. 

“This is their modus operandi. They are personal tools of Nuhu Ribadu,” he said. 

Over the weekend, he posted on X a letter addressed to Ribadu, asking him to explain an alleged delivery of 10 kilogrammes of thallium sulphate, a highly toxic chemical. 

Another senior member of El-Rufai’s opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) party, former justice minister Abubakar Malami, is also facing legal proceedings over allegations of terrorism and money-laundering. 

– Nampa/AFP