By Muhammad Mamman
A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) permission to access and analyse electronic devices recovered from the residence of former Nasir Ahmad El‑Rufai, the ex-governor of Kaduna State, as part of an ongoing investigation.
Delivering the ruling on Thursday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court of Nigeria approved an ex-parte motion filed by the anti-graft agency and moved by its counsel, Dr. Osuobeni Akponimisingha.
In the application, the ICPC told the court it required legal authorisation to inspect and carry out forensic examinations on several electronic devices seized during the investigation.
Justice Abdulmalik granted the request, authorising the commission to conduct forensic inspection, extraction and analysis of data from the devices. The order allows investigators to retrieve and examine materials such as public documents, WhatsApp conversations, text messages, call logs, photographs and other digital records relevant to the probe.
The devices listed in the court filings include a Sony HD-EGS storage device, a 1TB Transcend storage drive, a Toshiba storage device, Samsung, Nokia and BlackBerry mobile phones, as well as a Google IDEOS handset.
Also included are a Samsung storage device (SPO802N), a Remarkable tablet, an Apple MacBook Pro laptop, a Seagate FreeAgent Desk external drive, a ZTE mobile phone, 10 flash drives and a Microcell memory card.
According to the ICPC, the electronic devices were recovered during the course of its investigation and require detailed forensic analysis to aid ongoing investigative activities.
The court’s approval now empowers the anti-corruption agency to examine the digital materials “forensically or otherwise” in order to extract information that may assist its inquiry.
