A Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna has admitted former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai to bail, his son and House of Representatives member Bello El-Rufai disclosed on Thursday. The legislator, who attended the proceedings from which reporters were barred, said the family is now working to perfect the bail terms. "We are happy that Malam has been granted bail," Bello told waiting journalists after the closed-door session.
The ex-governor, whose tenure ended in May 2023, has been under probe by the state's new administration over allegations of treasury diversion and contract inflation running into billions of naira. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission picked him up in Abuja last week and flew him to Kaduna for arraignment, though charges are yet to be made public. Court officials declined to share details of the ruling, citing a confidentiality order reportedly issued by the trial judge.
Bello El-Rufai's breezy confirmation outside a courtroom that journalists were barred from entering is the real story here: a public interest hearing has been turned into a private family briefing, and nobody in Kaduna's judiciary seems bothered.
The secrecy fits a pattern in the state: since Governor Uba Sani took office, every move in the El-Rufai probe has been choreographed for maximum drama and minimum transparency. First the 24-hour media blackout after the arrest, now a bail ruling read out in an empty courtroom. Kaduna citizens who voted out the former governor still do not know what he is actually accused of, how much is missing, or whether the current governor's friends are also under scrutiny.
For ordinary Kaduna residents, the hidden ruling means the debt allegedly left behind—already reflected in stalled road projects, unpaid teachers and a spike in school fees—remains a political weapon rather than a recoverable claim. Until the charges are published, no one can tell if the state will claw back anything or if the next governor will simply inherit another pile of opaque IOUs.
This courtroom blackout joins a nationwide trend: high-profile graft cases are increasingly tried in the press release, not the dock. When the public is locked out, convictions become optional and restitution becomes fiction.
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