Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s government of intimidation and creeping authoritarianism after police summoned the former Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and six African Democratic Congress (ADC) leaders over allegations of criminal conspiracy and public disturbance.
In a letter dated 4 September and signed by a deputy commissioner of police, Uzairu Abdullahi, El-Rufai and his associates were ordered to appear before the State Criminal Investigation Department on 8 September. The allegations include conspiracy, incitement, mischief, and causing grievous harm.
Those named alongside El-Rufai include his former chief of staff, Bashir Sa’idu, as well as Jafaru Sani, Ubaidullah Mohammed, Nasiru Maikano, Aminu Abita and Ahmed Hussaini. The ADC’s Kaduna chairman has been instructed to produce them for questioning.
The summons follows violent clashes last weekend when an ADC meeting in Kaduna was attacked by armed thugs. Police have blamed El-Rufai for the unrest, an allegation he denies. Tensions between the former governor and his successor, Uba Sani, have escalated in recent months after El-Rufai’s allies lost a string of by-elections.
El-Rufai has also courted controversy with recent claims on national television that the government was “empowering bandits,” remarks condemned by both state and federal authorities. Kaduna’s commissioner for internal security, Suleiman Shuaibu, accused him of “provocation and incitement” and said his actions posed a threat to public peace.
Atiku, in a statement on Friday, linked the summons to what he called a wider pattern of political suppression, citing attacks on opposition figures in Kaduna, Katsina, and Kebbi. “This is a coordinated and dangerous assault on dissenting voices, civic freedoms, and the very essence of pluralistic democracy,” he warned.
The ADC also condemned the police action, with party spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi accusing security agencies of being weaponised against opponents while “ignoring the insecurity ravaging communities.” He demanded the withdrawal of the summons, the reopening of the party’s Kaduna office, and the prosecution of those behind the violence.
But the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed claims of persecution. Its national secretary, Ajibola Basiru, said, “That you are a politician does not give you immunity from investigation. It is the courts, not political rhetoric, that will determine guilt or innocence.”
The Middle Belt Forum went further, urging parties to avoid political alliances with El-Rufai ahead of the 2027 elections, describing him as a “political virus” who had long alienated Southern Kaduna.
The Kaduna branch of the opposition PDP took a different tack, calling the summons a witch-hunt but adding that El-Rufai was “reaping what he sowed” after allegedly rigging the 2023 state election in favour of his successor.
Officials in Kaduna did not respond to requests for comment, though a senior government source insisted the police were acting on evidence and not political orders: “Nobody is above the law.”
