Court adjourns El-Rufai’s trial to July 22 as defence seeks fresh recusal motion

The Kaduna State High Court on Wednesday adjourned the trial of Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, former Governor of Kaduna State, until July 22, 2026, after Paul Erokoro, his lead counsel, disowned three separate applications seeking the recusal of the trial judge and sought the court’s permission to file a fresh motion.

The prosecution, led by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), did not oppose the request.

The matter came up before the Kaduna State High Court for the hearing of an application filed by the defence seeking the withdrawal of the presiding judge from the case.

However, proceedings took a dramatic turn when Erokoro informed the court that he could not identify with or adopt three separate recusal applications filed by a junior member of the defence team, Ubong Akpan.

According to the ICPC, Erokoro described the applications as containing combative language and issues unrelated to the substance of the case.

He consequently sought the court’s leave to file a fresh application and undertook to formally withdraw the earlier motions.

Earlier, the prosecution, led by Ayodeji Adedipe, told the court that while the matter had been scheduled for the hearing of the defendant’s recusal application filed on July 6, the defence had filed three additional applications between the last adjourned date and Wednesday’s proceedings.

Adedipe noted that one of the applications was served on the prosecution shortly before the court commenced sitting on Wednesday.

In the interest of ensuring a fair hearing, the prosecution did not oppose the defence’s request for an adjournment to enable the filing of a fresh application.

Following the agreement of both parties, the court adjourned the matter until July 22, 2026, for the hearing of the new motion seeking the recusal of the trial judge.

El-Rufai is being prosecuted by the ICPC over allegations of abuse of office, diversion of public funds and other corruption-related offences allegedly committed during his tenure as governor of Kaduna State.