The trial of a former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as the Department of State Services formally closed its case at the Federal High Court in Abuja, paving the way for the defence to seek a dismissal of the charges.
The prosecution counsel, Oluwole Aladedoye, told the court that the DSS would not be calling additional witnesses in the alleged wiretapping case, effectively bringing its evidentiary presentation to an end.
Seizing on the development, counsel to the defendant, Paul Erokoro (SAN), notified the court of the defence’s intention to file a no-case submission, arguing that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against his client.
Erokoro subsequently requested a two-week adjournment to enable the defence to file the application, a request the court granted. The prosecution also asked for two weeks to respond once the application is filed.
The hearing, however, witnessed a fresh legal tussle over the bail conditions earlier imposed on El-Rufai. The defence urged the court to relax the terms, describing them as excessively stringent and impracticable.
Specifically, the defence faulted the requirement for sureties to be Level 17 civil servants with landed property in Abuja’s highbrow districts of Maitama or Asokoro, as well as the need for verification and attestation from the Kaduna State Traditional Council.
But the prosecution opposed the application, insisting that qualified individuals who meet the conditions exist and urging the court not to tamper with the bail terms.
In a ruling, the trial judge, Joyce Abdulmalik, dismissed the request, holding that the conditions were not impossible to meet.
The judge ruled that there are indeed senior civil servants with verifiable property in the specified locations and declined to vary the bail terms.
Following the proceedings, the court adjourned the matter until September 22, 2026, for the hearing of the no-case submission.
El-Rufai, who governed Kaduna State between 2015 and 2023, is facing charges bordering on alleged unlawful interception of communications, which he has denied.
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