Ubong Esop Akpan, lead counsel to former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, has issued a scathing condemnation following a dramatic confrontation at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Thursday, February 12, 2026.
The incident occurred shortly after El-Rufai arrived from Cairo on Egypt Air flight MS 877. According to Akpan, security operatives reportedly from the Department of State Services (DSS) and the EFCC attempted to take the former governor into custody without a warrant and forcibly seized his international passport from an aide.
In a strongly worded statement, Akpan clarified that El-Rufai has never intended to evade the law. He explained that an invitation from the EFCC was delivered to the former governor’s residence in December 2025 while he was already out of the country, making immediate attendance inherently illogical and impractical.
Akpan revealed that his firm had been in contact with the anti-graft agency since that time. Just one day before the airport incident, they explicitly notified the commission that El-Rufai would voluntarily appear at their office at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, February 16, 2026. The legal team argued that the attempted arrest, despite this commitment, was an act of “raw power, unclothed by law.”
The statement also credited ordinary Nigerians at the airport who reportedly protested the arrest, insisting that the operatives follow due process. Akpan concluded by demanding the “immediate return of his stolen passport” and a formal apology for the infringement on his client’s rights.
