(Lauretta Onochie. Photo by TheCable)
Former media aide to the late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Lauretta Onochie, has demanded the immediate release of African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain Nasir El-Rufai from detention.
Onochie argued that El-Rufai’s continued detention under dubious circumstances fuels public suspicion that state machinery is being used as a weapon against opposition figures.
In a post on X, she emphasized that opposition voices must be engaged with ideas and arguments, not suppressed through imprisonment.
She expressed deep concern over reports suggesting that El-Rufai’s freedom is being tied to political conditions specifically, that he must either return to the APC or withdraw entirely from active politics.
She described such conditions as coercion and political intimidation disguised as legal process, insisting that no citizen should be compelled to trade their political freedom for their personal liberty.
Onochie maintained that the right to political association, opposition, and participation is a fundamental guarantee in any constitutional democracy, and that Nigeria cannot credibly present itself as a democratic nation while penalizing dissenting voices for refusing to conform.
She called for any credible charges against El-Rufai to be heard openly, fairly, and swiftly before a competent court, but stressed that prolonged detention under questionable circumstances only deepens concerns about the politicization of state institutions.
Onochie framed the issue as one that transcends El-Rufai’s individual case, describing it as a matter that strikes at the very soul of Nigerian democracy and the freedom of citizens to disagree, contest power, and speak without fear.
She warned that a democracy that imprisons opposition figures today risks having no opposition left tomorrow, and that a nation without opposition is, in effect, a nation under dictatorship.
