El-Rufa’i Says Kaduna Govt Had No Knowledge of Dadiyata, Blames Ganduje for Abduction
Former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i, has denied any involvement of his administration in the 2019 abduction of lecturer and social media commentator Abubakar Idris.
Dadiyata, who lectured in the Department of English and Linguistics at the Federal University Dutsinma, Katsina State, was kidnapped from his Kaduna residence on August 2, 2019, by masked men who took him away in his car shortly after he returned from work. Since then, his whereabouts remain unknown, and investigations have produced no conclusive results.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have criticised the federal government for its perceived inaction on the case. Isa Sanusi, Country Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, described the abduction as characteristic of a targeted operation by state-backed actors meant to instil fear.
Speaking on ARISE NEWS on Friday, El-Rufa’i said Dadiyata was not a critic of the Kaduna State Government but of the Kano State Government.
“Dadiyata’s timeline is still around, go and study it. He was not a fierce critic of the Kaduna State Government; he was a fierce critic of the Kano State Government. He’s from Kano, he’s a Kwankwasiyya supporter, he lived in Kaduna and lectured at a university in Katsina State. Go and review his timeline. It was Ganduje that was his problem,” El-Rufa’i explained.
The former governor added that he only became aware of Dadiyata’s existence after the family reported the abduction to the police.
“I didn’t even know him. We only got the report that he lived in Kaduna after his family reported to the police that he was abducted returning home in the evening,” he said.
El-Rufa’i claimed that information gathered after the incident suggested the abductors came from Kano.
“When we investigated, all that we could gather from his family was that the abductors came from Kano. So if anybody should answer questions about Dadiyata’s disappearance, it’s the Kano State Government. It has nothing to do with the Kaduna State Government. We didn’t even know he existed,” he stated.
He further alleged that years later, a police officer confessed to being part of the abduction.
“Three years after Dadiyata was abducted, a policeman posted from Kano to Ekiti State admitted to someone that they were sent from Kano and took him. That’s the only information I know,” El-Rufa’i said.
The former governor insisted that his administration could not have protected Dadiyata while he lived in Kaduna because they were unaware of his presence.
“It was not a Kaduna State problem. He lived in Kaduna State, and it was our duty to protect him. But how could we protect him when we didn’t even know he existed?” he concluded.
