Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna state, and Abdullahi Ganduje, ex-governor of Kano state, have traded words over the disappearance of Abubakar Idris, a social media commentator known as Dadiyata.
Dadiyata was abducted on August 2, 2019, by unidentified
gunmen as he drove into his residence in Barnawa, Kaduna state.
His disappearance sparked outrage and multiple legal actions
by his family and civil society organisations.
In 2020, a federal high court in Kaduna ordered the
Department of State Security (DSS) and other agencies to produce him, but the
agency denied having him in custody.
Speaking on Arise Television on Friday, el-Rufai denied any
involvement in the disappearance.
“Dadiyata was not a fierce critic of the Kaduna state
government. He was a fierce critic of the Kano state government,” he said.
“He is a Kwankwasiya guy; he lives in Kaduna and lectures at
a university in Katsina state, but is a fierce critic not of Kaduna state. Go
and review his timeline.
“It was Ganduje that was his problem. I didn’t even know
him. We only got the report of the Dadiyata’s existence and the fact that he
lives in Kaduna state after the family reported to the police that he was
abducted as he was returning home in the evening.
“If anybody is to be asked about the disappearance of
Dadiyata, it is the Kano state government; it has nothing to do with the Kaduna
state government. We didn’t even know he existed.”
El-Rufai also claimed that a police officer made a
confession years later.
“Three years after Dadiyata was abducted, a policeman who
was posted out of Kano to Ekiti state confessed to someone that they were sent
from Kano and they abducted Dadiyata, and he felt bad about it,” he said.
“That’s the only thing I know; it was not a Kaduna state
problem.”
However, a December 23, 2019, post on X by Bashir el-Rufai,
son of the former Kaduna governor, resurfaced amid the renewed controversy.
The post was made about four months after Dadiyata’s
disappearance as some Nigerians demanding for justice under the hashtag
#WhereIsDadiyata.
“The same clowns who encouraged him when he was creating
false stories and capitalizing on lies that could endanger lives solely for
political ends are the same individuals trending hashtags asking
#WhereisDadiyata. Dangerous lies in the public space have consequences,” Bashir
wrote.
GANDUJE REJECTS ALLEGATION
Ganduje, through a statement signed by Muhammad Garba,
former Kano commissioner for information and internal affairs, rejected the
allegation.
He described the claim as “reckless, unfounded and a clear
attempt to shift responsibility for an incident that occurred entirely within
Kaduna State”.
The governor said Dadiyata lived and operated in Kaduna and
was widely known for criticising the Kaduna government.
“Everyone in Kaduna knew the nature of the criticism he made
and who it was directed at,” he said.
The former Kano governor questioned el-Rufai’s claim about a
police confession
“It is difficult to reconcile a claim of having no prior
knowledge of the individual with simultaneously making detailed assertions
about who was responsible,” Ganduje said.
“The family deserves closure. What they do not deserve is
for this tragic matter to become an instrument of political blame-shifting.”
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