Ganduje Pushes Back on El-Rufai Over Dadiyata Claims
By: Oluwaseun Lawal
The blame game has shifted. Again.
Former Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has firmly rejected claims by ex-Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai linking him to the disappearance of Abubakar Idris, widely known as Dadiyata. The denial was sharp. Direct.
In a statement signed by Comrade Muhammad Garba, a former Kano Commissioner for Information, the allegation was described as reckless and unfounded. According to him, it is an attempt to redirect responsibility for an incident that happened in Kaduna — not Kano.
Garba stressed a basic point. Dadiyata lived in Kaduna. He worked there. His online criticisms, he said, were made from there. At the time of his disappearance in 2019, primary security oversight rested with the Kaduna State Government alongside federal agencies. That, he implied, cannot be ignored.
He questioned why any supposed confession tying Kano to the abduction was never formally submitted to security agencies. If there was evidence, where is it? Serious accusations, he insisted, require verifiable proof — not political storytelling.
The statement also urged restraint. Dadiyata’s case remains unresolved. Painful for his family. Sensitive for the public. It should not be turned into a political contest.
This follows comments made by el-Rufai during an appearance on Arise TV’s Primetime programme. There, he denied any involvement in the disappearance and suggested that Dadiyata was primarily a critic of the Kano State Government under Ganduje. He referenced what he described as information from the family indicating the abductors came from Kano. He also mentioned an alleged confession by a police officer years later, claiming operatives were sent from Kano.
Those claims, however, have not been publicly substantiated.
For Ganduje’s camp, the position is clear: accountability must rest on facts and due process. Not assumptions. Not rivalry.
Meanwhile, Dadiyata remains missing. And the unanswered questions linger.
