Former Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has pushed back at claim that he’s behind the disappearance of a critic and lecturer, Abubakar Idris popularly known on social media as Dadiyata.
The latter, a lecturer at Federal University Dutsin-Ma and a troll censuring the administration of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna was abducted in 2019 during El-Rufai’s tenure as the state governor.
Till date Dadiyata’s whereabouts has remained unknown despite court’s order to security agencies to produce him, which came to nought.
The situation has ensued wide belief that the 34-year-old has long been killed.
His issue took the centre stage again after El-Rufai to whom accusing finger for the social media critic’s missing was pointed at in an interview with Arise TV denied the accusation.
He however, redirected the allegation to Ganduje saying, “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 guy, he lived in Kaduna and lectured at a university in Katsina 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 Dadiyata’s existence and that he lived in Kaduna State after his family reported to the police that he was abducted as he was returning home in the evening…When we investigated, all that we could gather from his family was that the abductors came, took him, and they came from Kano. So if anybody is to be asked questions about the disappearance of Dadiyata, it’s the Kano State Government. It has nothing to do with the Kaduna State Government. We didn’t even know he existed. I didn’t even know he existed until he was abducted.”
Responding to the chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, the former All Progressives Congress national chairman described the allegation as reckless, unfounded and a clear attempt to shift responsibility for an incident that occurred entirely within Kaduna State.
Ganduje in the refutal former Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in Kano state during his administration, Comrade Muhammad Garba issued, emphasized that Dadiyata lived and operated in Kaduna, where he was widely known for criticising the Kaduna state government during El-Rufai’s time.
“Everyone in Kaduna knew the nature of the criticism he made and who it was directed at,” the statement read partly.
Ganduje also expressed concern over El-Rufai’s claim that a police officer allegedly confessed to being sent from Kano to abduct Dadiyata.
He questioned why such grave information, if credible, was not formally disclosed to investigative authorities or pursued transparently through appropriate security channels at the time.
“It is difficult to reconcile a claim of having no prior knowledge of the individual with simultaneously making detailed assertions about who was responsible,” he added.
