Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State, showed up in the Federal High Court in Kaduna on Wednesday morning to continue the hearing on his bail request.
Security personnel and a few onlookers were alerted when the former governor was driven into the court premises at approximately 9:00 a.m. and got out of the car at precisely 9:05 a.m.
The court was clearly under more security, with armed guards stationed both inside and outside the building to keep the peace.
According to The PUNCH, security personnel conducted stringent entrance controls, preventing journalists from entering the courtroom as proceedings resumed.
According to Naija News, the hearing was resumed after Tuesday’s proceedings were halted due to new developments in the case brought about by the defense team’s legal strategies.
The defense had submitted a motion during the previous session asking Justice Rilwan M. Aikawa, the presiding judge, to remove himself from the case due to a pending petition and claimed bias.
The prosecution immediately opposed the application, which questioned the court’s neutrality and signaled a dramatic change in the proceedings.
The defense team then filed a second motion to revoke its previous plea for the judge to recuse itself from the case, which was a remarkable reversal.
The contradictory applications led to a flurry of legal correspondence between the parties’ attorneys, which caused procedural delays that finally prevented the bail application from being heard.
The prosecution’s counter-affidavit opposing the bail request made matters worse by giving the defense little time to review and react to the new documents.
Justice Aikawa postponed the hearing till Wednesday in light of the circumstances.
