ICPC charges El-Rufai with N579.7m fraud, $817,900 suspicious transactions

Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was on Tuesday arraigned before the Federal High Court in Kaduna by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over allegations of money laundering, inflated severance payments, and suspicious foreign currency deposits.

The former governor, arraigned alongside co-defendant Joel Adoga, pleaded not guilty to a 10-count charge alleging unlawful financial benefits totalling N579.7 million and $817,900 traced to his Guaranty Trust Bank domiciliary account.

According to the charge sheet, the ICPC accused El-Rufai of fraudulently receiving N289.8 million twice—first in September 2020 and again in January 2023—as severance benefits for each of his two terms in office. Investigators contend he was only entitled to about N20 million per term, placing his legitimate total benefits at roughly N40 million, far below the amount allegedly collected.

The commission argued that the payments—reportedly amounting to nearly 300 percent of his annual basic salary—should have raised red flags and were reasonably identifiable as proceeds of unlawful activity.

Beyond the severance claims, the ICPC alleged that El-Rufai received $817,900 in multiple cash deposits between 2016 and March 2023, while serving as governor. The deposits, made in tranches ranging from $4,000 to $320,800, were allegedly linked to several individuals, some of whom are currently at large.

In one count, prosecutors alleged that El-Rufai took control of $320,800 deposited by his co-defendant, Adoga, over several years. Other counts detail separate deposits of $155,800, $305,300, and additional smaller sums traced to different individuals. The commission maintains the funds are suspected proceeds of corruption that the former governor “ought reasonably to have known” were illicit.