The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has arraigned former Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, his former Senior Special Adviser and Counsellor Jimi Lawal, and five others over an alleged N8.68 billion CCTV surveillance contract awarded during his administration.
The anti-graft agency announced this in a statement posted on its website on Thursday, noting that the defendants were arraigned before Justice Hauwa’u Buhari of the Federal High Court in Kaduna in Charge No. FHC/KD/93C/2026.
According to the commission, the updated 11-count charge covers suspected corruption, money laundering, and associated offences.
The ICPC named El-Rufai as the first defendant, along with Lawal, Singularity Network Security Limited, Solar Life Nigeria Limited, Knowledge Investment Nigeria Limited, Intercellular Nigeria Limited, and Noble Coast Resources Limited.
The panel also implicated Bashir El-Rufai, the former governor’s elder brother who is currently at large, in one of the counts.
According to the ICPC, while acting as governor, El-Rufai approved Singularity Network Security Limited’s award of a contract worth N8.68 billion for the procurement, survey planning, final design, and installation of a closed-circuit television surveillance system in Kaduna.
The agency claimed that the company lacked the necessary experience and credentials for the contract, and that cash related to the project were later transferred through a network of organizations and individuals.
The commission further claimed that the defendants received and possessed cash totalling N2 billion between 2017 and 2022 through a series of transactions involving the entities identified in the complaint.
It stated that the funds were reasonably considered to be the profits of illegal operations and that the alleged offences violated sections of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Count One reads, ‘That you, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (M), sometime in December 2015 or thereabout at Kaduna, Kaduna State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while being the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, aided an act of corruption when you approved the award of contract for the procurement of survey planning, final design and installation of CCTV at Kaduna metropolis in the reviewed sum of N8,682,574,054.94 (Eight Billion, Six Hundred and Eighty-Two Million, Five Hundred and Seventy-Four Thousand, Fifty-Four Naira, Ninety-Four Kobo) to Messrs Singularity Network Security Limited, a company with no requisite experience and in violation of procurement laws, which act you knew was unlawful and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 21(a) and punishable under Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.’
When the allegations against El-Rufai and Lawal were read in court, they both pleaded not guilty.
Justice Buhari then adjourned the case until July 1, 2026, to rule on the defendants’ bail applications.
The former governor is also facing a complaint filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) for eavesdropping of National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu’s phone.
