When a former governor drags a state police command to the Police Service Commission (PSC), it’s not a routine grievance, it’s a political grenade. On 8 September 2025, Nasir El-Rufai formally asked the PSC to investigate what he called “unlawful and unconstitutional conduct” by the Kaduna State Police Command, accusing senior officers of standing aside while suspected thugs attacked an opposition event and of repeatedly violating the Police Act since the current commissioner’s 2024 posting.
The petition is blunt: accountability, now — or the public will assume complicity.
In a petition dated September 8, 2025, El-Rufai alleged that the Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State and some officers had engaged in acts he described as “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
The former governor, in the petition, said he was acting in his capacity as a citizen and demanded urgent action from the PSC.
I am writing as a citizen of Nigeria and former governor of Kaduna State to formally lodge this complaint and demand an immediate, impartial, and exhaustive investigation into the unlawful and unconstitutional conduct of the Commissioner of Police and some officers of the Kaduna State Police Command,” El-Rufai wrote.
The petition comes against the backdrop of a worsening face-off between El-Rufai and the Kaduna Police Command.
The Back Story
On 30 August 2025 suspected political thugs reportedly attacked the inauguration meeting of a transition committee convened by opposition parties linked to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Kaduna. Attendees, including El-Rufai and other opposition figures, say they were assaulted and property was vandalised.
El-Rufai claims police on the scene watched without intervening, a charge that, if true, suggests either paralysis or collusion. He had earlier petitioned the Inspector-General of Police and now wants the PSC to step in for an “impartial and exhaustive” probe.
The Kaduna Police Command subsequently issued a summons to El-Rufai and several ADC leaders to appear before the State Criminal Investigation Department over allegations including conspiracy and incitement, a development that risks appearing retaliatory.
What El-Rufai’s Petition Actually Says
In his carefully worded letter to the PSC, El-Rufai demanded “an immediate, impartial and exhaustive investigation” into the Commissioner of Police and “some officers” of the Kaduna command for what he described as “abuse of office,” “dereliction of duty,” and repeated violations of the Police Act since 30 December 2024 — the date the present CP resumed duty in Kaduna. He framed the petition as a citizen’s duty to protect rule of law and public confidence in the police.
Why that line matters: the PSC is the constitutional body tasked with oversight of policing standards and discipline. By taking his complaint to the PSC rather than only the IGP or the courts, El-Rufai is asking for institutional intervention — and public transparency.
When Two Narratives Collide
This story now spins between two competing narratives:
1. El-Rufai’s case: The state police looked on while political violence unfolded; that cannot be brushed aside as “chaos.”
If security forces selectively enforce the law, democracy dies slowly and visibly. El-Rufai and ADC supporters frame the petition as defending citizens’ constitutional rights.
2. Police counter-narrative: The command says it’s investigating — and has summoned opposition leaders. That sequence risks appearing like retaliation: victims called in as suspects.
If the force uses criminal process to intimidate critics, the institution itself becomes an instrument of political power rather than a protector of citizens.
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Both narratives carry political weight; neither can be accepted without an independent fact-finding probe. The PSC’s next moves will determine whether Nigerians see a genuine effort at accountability or another episode in a long pattern of selective policing.
What Nigerians Should Watch For
A functioning democracy depends on a police force that protects everyone, including critics of power. If the PSC’s probe is credible, it could begin to unclog a chokehold of suspicion and restore a small measure of trust.
But if it is perfunctory, expect this episode to not simply fade, it will metastasize into another charge of state partisanship, feeding cycles of protest, recrimination, and deeper democratic decay.
El-Rufai’s petition is no mere bureaucratic note, it is a public dare: prove that the police serve the law, not political interests. How the PSC answers will tell us if Nigeria’s institutions are still, at their core, on the side of the people.
