A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) permission to access and analyse electronic devices recovered during a search of the Abuja residence of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
The order was issued on Thursday by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik while ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by the anti-graft agency and argued by its counsel, Dr. Osuobeni Akponimisingha.
In granting the request, the court authorised the ICPC to inspect, conduct forensic examinations, and extract data from about 14 electronic devices seized during the operation at the former governor’s home.
According to the ruling, the commission may analyse data from the devices, including public documents, WhatsApp conversations, text messages, photographs, call logs and other relevant information, as part of its ongoing investigation.
The devices listed in the court order include a Sony HD-EGS storage device, ITB Transcend storage device, Toshiba storage device, Samsung mobile phone, Nokia mobile phone (N958GB), Blackberry phone, Google IDEOS phone, Samsung storage device (SPO802N), a Remarkable tablet, Apple MacBook Pro (black), Seagate FreeAgent Desk external drive, ZTE mobile phone, 10 flash drives and a Microcell memory card.
Justice Abdulmalik held that the ICPC is “forthwith granted access” to the electronic devices for inspection and forensic extraction of data obtained during the course of its investigation.
Meanwhile, El-Rufai has filed a separate suit before the same court challenging the legality of the search of his residence and seeking N1 billion in damages.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/345/2026, the former governor listed the ICPC, the Chief Magistrate of the Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation as respondents.
El-Rufai is asking the court to declare the search warrant issued on February 4 by the FCT Magistrate Court invalid, arguing that it lacked specific details about the items to be seized and contained drafting errors and ambiguous execution terms.
He further contended that the warrant violated provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 and Section 36 of the ICPC Act, insisting that it failed to establish probable cause.
The former governor also alleged that the execution of the warrant by operatives of the ICPC and the police at his residence on February 19 constituted an unlawful invasion that breached his constitutional rights to dignity, personal liberty, fair hearing and privacy.
El-Rufai is therefore asking the court to award N1 billion as general, exemplary and aggravated damages, claiming that the search and seizure caused him psychological trauma, humiliation, reputational harm and infringement of his privacyp
 permission to access and analyse electronic devices recovered during a search of the Abuja residence of former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai.){kind=link}