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The controversial bail conditions imposed on the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, have sparked concern across the country, with some Nigerians calling for a review of what they consider to be unrealistic and difficult-to-meet requirements.
Specifically, a human rights and anti- corruption activist, Comrade Ibrahim Garba Wala, has cautioned the judiciary over what he described as ‘impossible bail condition given to the former governor, demanding an immediate review.
The activist, popularly known as IG Wala, also called on the judiciary, particularly the presiding judges handling the former Governor’s matters, to live up to their billing as the last hope of constitutional justice.
Reacting to recent public statements by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, regarding the weaponisation of bail conditions in the county, Wala, in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, lamented that courts and law enforcement agencies have increasingly transformed bail from a constitutional mechanism to secure trial attendance into an instrument of punitive, pre-trial incarceration.
According to him, nowhere is this alarming trend more dangerously or explicitly exemplified than in the ongoing judicial and state-sponsored ordeal of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Malam El-Rufai.
He said: “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.
“As the Court of Appeal clearly ruled in Dasuki v. DG, SSS, expecting civil servants to provide multi-million naira properties is not only a logistical absurdity but a flagrant violation of public service frameworks.”
He added that by keeping El-Rufai structurally locked out of perfecting his bail, his detractors were achieving through judicial frustration what they cannot legally justify.
He said: “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.”
While commending the NBA President for speaking truth to power, the rights activist recalled that Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s tenure as Governor of Kaduna State was defined by bold, uncompromising structural and governance reforms.
“While these reforms reshaped the state, they also inevitably created powerful, entrenched adversaries.
“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 against El-Rufai’s aggressive structural reforms, security policies, and bold political reconfigurations that have permanently upended 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,” he said.
The statement, however, 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.
“Neutralise Sectarian and Political Agendas: The leadership of the DSS, ICPC, and the Federal Government must look inward and flush out biased actors using state infrastructure to settle historical grievances.
“Preserve the Presumption of Innocence: The state must stop treating an unconvicted citizen as a condemned convict.
“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.”