El-Rufai points fingers at Kano govt over Dadiyata's disappearance

By Najib Sani, Gombe 

Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has broken his silence on the 2019 disappearance of Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Dadiyata, pointing fingers at the Kano State government. 

In an interview with Arise TV, El-Rufai revealed that Dadiyata was abducted by police officers dispatched from Kano, citing a confession from a policeman reassigned from Kano to Ekiti State.

"Dadiyata is a critic of the Kano government. He was a fierce critic of the Kano State government. He is from Kano. He lives in Kaduna and lectures at a university in Katsina State.

"It was Ganduje that was his problem. I don’t even know him. We only got a report of Dadiyata’s existence after his family reported to the police that he was abducted", he said.

El-Rufai shared that the policeman confessed to being part of a team sent to abduct Dadiyata, saying, "Three years after Dadiyata was abducted, a policeman posted from Kano to Ekiti confessed to someone that they were sent from Kano and abducted Dadiyata, and felt bad about it. That is the only thing I know, but it was not a problem for Kaduna State".

Dadiyata, a member of the Kwankwasiyya movement loyal to a prominent Kano based politician and former governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, had been criticising former Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje before his disappearance. 

El-Rufai is calling on investigators to question the Kano State government over Dadiyata's disappearance, as his whereabouts remain unknown for about seven years now.