…Says victim’s security rested with Kaduna State Govt.
Former Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Sunday, February 15, 2026, vehemently denied claims by former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai linking him to the abduction and disappearance of Abubakar Idris popularly known as Dadiyata in 2019.
Ganduje stated that Dadiyata lived and operated in Kaduna, where his criticisms were directed, stressing that his security responsibility at the time rested with the Kaduna State Government and federal agencies.
He specifically said that accountability must be based on facts and due process, as against speculation.
Ganduje in a statement by his Chief of Staff, Muhammad Garba, particularly questioned why any alleged confession implicating Kano was never formally presented to security authorities, just as he insisted that such serious accusations must be backed by verifiable evidence and not political rhetoric.
He therefore described the claims by El-Rufai as reckless, unfounded, and a clear attempt to shift responsibility for an incident that occurred in Kaduna State.
Ganduje, who was National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), warned against politicising a painful and unresolved matter, thus urged that the focus should remain on lawful investigation and justice for the Dadiyata’s family.
El-Rufai, who featured on Arise TV Primetime programme on Friday night, denied culpability in Dadiyata’s disappearance, but suggested that Ganduje might have been responsible.
In the words of El-Rufai; “Dadiyata was not a critic of the Kaduna State Government under my watch, but of the Kano State Government under Ganduje’s governorship. 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 is from Kano. He is 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. 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 is 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.
“Three years after Dadiyata was abducted, a policeman that was posted out of Kano to Ekiti State confessed to someone that they were sent from Kano and they took the guy, they abducted Dadiyata, and he felt bad about it. That is the only thing I know,” El-Rufai enthused.
Dadiyata, a vocal online critic, went missing under controversial circumstances that have continued to generate debate and attention, just as calls for transparency and accountability have occupied the civil space.
