My Husband Does Not Have A Phone – El-Rufai’s Wife Slams ICPC Over Doctor’s Arrest

Asiya El-Rufai, the wife of embattled former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has condemned the arrest of El-Rufai’s personal physician, Abubakar Bello,

Naija News reports that  the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had disclosed that Bello was arrested for allegedly making false statements.

However, speaking during an interview on Arise Television, Asiya dismissed the allegations against Bello.

She stated that the medical practitioner has treated the former governor since his time as Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

“They’ve now arrested him. Professor Bello has been Mallam’s doctor since Mallam was DG, BPE,” she revealed.

Dismissing claims that the former governor’s hospital visit was used to facilitate meetings with political associates, El-Rufai insisted there was no breach of any court order. She maintained that the visit was strictly for medical treatment and in line with the court’s directive granting him access to healthcare.

“There’s no court directive, sir. The court directive was very clear: he should have unfettered access to health care. The ICPC is interpreting the order too narrowly.

“What I will say about this is that we requested for 5:00 PM because of the same issue. It will be less busy, there will be less people. They opened the door. Now, after the consultation, they always insist on a report. And that letter, they asked Mallam to wait to collect the letter. Mallam was sitting in the reception. There were people already there. Malam is a prominent person, people come to greet him.

“And so, if in the process, something went wrong, people that they didn’t want to see happens to be there, how do you blame him? A conversation… yeah, he had conversations; in a public place. It’s not as if it was a closed-door meeting. It’s not as if he called somebody to come. You informed him at 7:00 PM. He does not have access to a phone. How is it that he arranged to have a meeting with politicians?”, she quizzed.

El-Rufai said she was worried that healthcare was being “weaponised,” warning that intimidating medical professionals could discourage doctors from giving independent medical opinions and further worsen the country’s brain drain.

“The fact that we are weaponizing healthcare. If doctors become afraid to offer opinions, what does it say? It’s not about Nasir El-Rufai anymore. It’s about the fact that professionals are being muzzled in so that they are afraid to give professional opinions. What does this say about our nation? We have been saying that our people are running away to go abroad to be doctors and all that. This is one example of what will make somebody leave,” she explained.