Former media aide to late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, has demanded the immediate release of African Democratic Congress chieftain Nasir El-Rufai, warning that his continued detention undermines Nigeria’s democracy.
Onochie said El-Rufai’s questionable detention fuels public suspicion that state power is being used against opposition figures.
In a post on X, she stressed that opposition voices must be engaged with ideas, not silenced through detention.
She wrote: “In every democracy, opposition voices must be challenged with ideas, not silenced with prison walls. When political participation becomes grounds for persecution, democracy itself is placed on trial.
“Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has now spent months in custody over what many Nigerians believe are politically motivated and trumped-up charges.
“Even more disturbing are reports that the path to his freedom comes with political conditions: return to the APC or abandon active politics entirely.
“That is not justice. That is coercion. That is political intimidation dressed up as due process.”
Onochie argued that Nigeria cannot claim to be democratic while punishing dissenting voices for refusing to align politically. She maintained that the right to political association and opposition is guaranteed under the constitution and that no citizen should have to trade freedom for political surrender.
“If there is a credible case against him, let it be heard openly, fairly, and speedily before a competent court. But continued detention under questionable circumstances only deepens public suspicion that the machinery of state is being weaponised against opposition figures.
“This is bigger than Nasir El-Rufai. It is about the soul of Nigerian democracy. It is about whether citizens are still free to disagree, contest power, and speak without fear.
“Mallam Nasir El-Rufai must be released immediately even if on bail pending the fair determination of his case.
“A democracy that jails opposition voices today may have no opposition left tomorrow. A nation without opposition, is a nation under dictatorship,” she added.
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