She argued that his continued incarceration represents "punishment before trial" and poses a threat to Nigeria's democratic institutions.

Asia Ahmad El-Rufai, a lawyer and wife of former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has appealed to the international community to intervene over what she described as her husband's prolonged detention. 

She argued that his continued incarceration represents "punishment before trial" and poses a threat to Nigeria's democratic institutions.

In a public statement issued to mark what she described as the 150th day of El-Rufai's detention and published on the African Report, Asia said she was speaking "not as a politician, lawyer or diplomat, but as a wife, a mother and a Nigerian woman asking that the country my husband served for so many years remember its own conscience."

Reflecting on the length of her husband's detention, she wrote: "On the 150th day of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai's detention, I ask readers outside Nigeria to pause over what that number means.

One hundred and fifty days is not a legal phrase. It is five months of missed meals, missed prayers, missed proper mourning of his deceased mother, missed family conversations, interrupted medical care and moments we can never recover."

She acknowledged that her husband had long been a controversial political figure, having served as head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Governor of Kaduna State.

"My husband is no stranger to controversy or public scrutiny. He has spent more than two decades in public life – as head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, minister of the Federal Capital Territory and governor of Kaduna State. He has been praised, criticised, loved and opposed. That is democracy. But what is happening to him today is not democracy, and it is not accountability. It is punishment before trial," she said.

Asia alleged that her husband's ordeal began with "the attempted airport interception, when security officials seized his passport without a warrant and assaulted his aide in public view."

According to her, El-Rufai voluntarily honoured an invitation from authorities after being summoned but was subsequently detained despite what she described as promises of bail.

"There was the sudden invitation, his voluntary appearance before the authorities, and the promise of bail that existed on paper but not in freedom.

There was the night he was moved between locations without warning and without the dignity of allowing his family to know where he was being taken," she stated.

She also claimed that the former governor became seriously ill while in custody. 

"I still remember the helplessness of hearing that he had fallen gravely ill in custody, bleeding from his nose and mouth, while those responsible for his welfare were reluctant.

Source: SaharaReporters