The former Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has hit back at his former Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir El-Rufai, describing as “reckless and unfounded” allegations linking him to the 2019 disappearance of social media activist Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Dadiyata.
The verbal exchange follows recent comments by Mr. El-Rufai on *Arise Television*, where he suggested that Dadiyata was abducted by police officers dispatched from Kano State during Mr. Ganduje’s tenure.
In a strongly worded statement signed by the former Kano State Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Muhammad Garba, Mr. Ganduje told El-Rufai to “face his problems” and stop attempting to shift the blame for an incident that occurred entirely within Kaduna’s jurisdiction.
During his television appearance on Friday, Mr. El-Rufai sought to distance himself from the long-standing accusations that his administration was behind Dadiyata’s disappearance. For years, social media users and human rights groups have pointed fingers at the Kaduna government, given that the abduction took place in the state.
However, El-Rufai claimed that Dadiyata was not a critic of his government but was instead a vocal opponent of the Ganduje administration.
“Three years after he was abducted, a policeman who was posted from Kano to Ekiti State confessed to someone that they were sent from Kano to abduct Dadiyata and that the officer was worried about that. That is all I know,” El-Rufai stated. He maintained that the state could not have provided protection as it was unaware of the activist’s “friction” with the Kano government.
Responding on behalf of Mr. Ganduje, Comrade Muhammad Garba described the claims as a political diversion. He argued that Dadiyata lived and operated in Kaduna and was widely known for directing his criticisms at the Kaduna State government, not Kano.
“Everyone in Kaduna knew the nature of the criticism he made and who it was directed at,” the statement read. “Responsibility for security in Kaduna at the time rested with the state government and the relevant federal security agencies operating there.”
Garba further questioned why El-Rufai, if he truly possessed information about a “confessing police officer,” failed to report it to the appropriate authorities for five years.
“It is difficult to reconcile a claim of having no prior knowledge of the individual with simultaneously making detailed assertions about who was responsible,” Garba noted. He added that Ganduje’s administration was marked by “tolerance for criticism and open media engagement,” claiming there was no record of harassment of critics in Kano during that period.
Abubakar Idris, a 34-year-old lecturer at the Federal University Dutsin-Ma and a staunch supporter of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, was intercepted by unidentified armed men on August 2, 2019, as he drove into his compound in the Barnawa area of Kaduna.
Since then, his whereabouts have remained unknown. In 2020, a Federal High Court in Kaduna ordered the State Security Service (SSS) and other agencies to produce him, but the authorities denied holding him in custody. Amnesty International has since classified his case as an “enforced disappearance.”
The Ganduje camp urged El-Rufai to stop “politicizing a painful and unresolved episode.”
“The family deserves closure,” Garba said. “What they do not deserve is for this tragic matter to become an instrument of political blame-shifting. We urge anyone with credible information regarding the abduction to present it to the appropriate authorities.”
The statement concluded by emphasizing that accountability must be based on facts and due process rather than speculation and rhetoric.
