The Department of State Services (DSS) has clarified the circumstances surrounding the reported seizure of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s passport at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, denying claims that its operatives attempted to arrest or detain him.
The clarification followed a viral claim by El-Rufai’s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, who alleged that security agents moved to arrest the former governor on Thursday as he arrived from Cairo, Egypt.
Adekeye, in a post on his verified X account, said operatives approached El-Rufai upon arrival and sought to take him into custody. According to him, the former governor declined to accompany them, insisting on a formal invitation, and the operatives subsequently seized his passport through an aide.
However, a senior source within the DSS dismissed the claims of an attempted arrest as false and misleading, stating that the agency’s action was limited to the seizure of the travel document.
“We only seized his passport in response to a request by an anti-graft agency, so he would honour their invitation,” the source explained.
The DSS maintained that there was no effort to detain or arrest the former governor at the airport.
The development comes amid heightened political tension following El-Rufai’s recent defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a move that has triggered significant political reactions.
In a recent interview with BBC Hausa Service, El-Rufai alleged that he might be targeted for arrest by the Federal Government, claiming that some of his associates had already been detained.
“Four people we worked with in Kaduna have been arrested; so it is only a matter of time before they come for me too,” he said.
Although he acknowledged that he had not been arrested, the former governor argued that the detention of his associates pointed to possible action against him.
El-Rufai also alleged that political pressure was being mounted on politicians to either defect to the ruling party or remain aligned with it, claiming that many actors were now making decisions based on political survival rather than conviction.
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