A human rights and anti-corruption activist, Comrade Ibrahim Garba (IG) Wala, has called for an immediate review of the bail conditions imposed on the detained former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, describing them as “impossible” and a threat to constitutional justice.
Wala, popularly known as IG Wala, urged the judiciary, particularly the judges handling El-Rufai’s cases, to uphold their constitutional responsibility as the last hope of justice and ensure that bail is not used as a tool for punishment before trial.
In a statement signed on Saturday in Abuja, the activist reacted to recent comments by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, who criticised the weaponisation of bail conditions in Nigeria.
According to IG Wala, courts and law enforcement agencies have increasingly transformed bail from a constitutional mechanism designed to secure a defendant’s attendance in court into “an instrument of punitive, pre-trial incarceration.”
He argued that the conditions attached to El-Rufai’s bail exemplified the institutional overreach highlighted by the NBA president.
“The stringent, near-impossible conditions attached to El-Rufai’s bail perfectly capture the exact institutional overreach condemned by the NBA leadership. Requiring multiple sureties who must be serving federal civil servants on Grade Level 17, demanding original Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) for landed properties worth hundreds of millions of naira in ultra-expensive enclaves like Maitama or Asokoro, and forcing restrictive check-ins at security headquarters create an insurmountable barrier to freedom,” IG Wala said.
He further cited the Court of Appeal decision in Dasuki v. DG, SSS, arguing that expecting civil servants to provide properties worth hundreds of millions of naira was “not only a logistical absurdity but a flagrant violation of public service frameworks.”
The activist maintained that the conditions effectively prevented the former governor from securing his release.
“By keeping El-Rufai structurally locked out of perfecting his bail, his detractors are achieving through judicial frustration what they cannot legally justify, the indefinite confinement of a citizen whose physical well-being is actively at risk. This is no longer about accountability; it has evolved into a calculated strategy of physical and psychological attrition.”
IG Wala also commended the NBA president for “speaking truth to power” and reflected on El-Rufai’s tenure as Kaduna State governor, describing it as one marked by “bold, uncompromising structural and governance reforms” that created powerful adversaries.
He alleged that political interests and elements within the security establishment were exploiting the legal process to settle longstanding grievances.
“Highly credible insights from political analysts point to a far more sinister reality: the machinery of state enforcement is currently being driven by a dangerous convergence of historical adversaries and entrenched political interest groups who are vengeancefully capitalising on this persecution to extract an institutional pound of flesh.
“On one side, certain elements within the current security and government apparatus are utilising this judicial theatre to settle old scores rooted in past ideological clashes and historical state-led security crackdowns. Concurrently, powerful regional factions are leveraging long-standing grudges over El-Rufai’s aggressive structural reforms, security policies and bold political reconfigurations that permanently upset traditional power dynamics.
“By capturing or heavily influencing the machinery of federal law enforcement, these combined forces have transformed what should be a transparent legal process into a coordinated proxy war. It is an unholy alliance using the courts not to seek justice, but to execute a long-awaited vendetta.”
The activist called for what he described as realistic and achievable bail conditions, urging the relevant authorities to ensure that state institutions are not used to pursue political or sectarian agendas.
He specifically called for an immediate review of El-Rufai’s bail conditions to “realistic, achievable parameters that do not require turning civil servants into real estate moguls,” the leadership of the DSS, ICPC and the Federal Government to “look inward and flush out biased actors using state infrastructure to settle historical grievances”; and respect for the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence.
IG Wala warned that allowing the former governor to remain in custody because of what he described as ‘impossible bail conditions’ would have wider implications for the country’s justice system.
“If Malam Nasir El-Rufai is allowed to suffer a silent, systematic breakdown in custody under the guise of ‘impossible bail,’ it will mark the formal burial of constitutional liberty in Nigeria. The world is watching,” he stated.
