El-Rufai’s Remarks: Centre Seeks Fresh Probe Of Dadiyata’s Disappearance

The Sterling Centre for Law and Development has written to the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice to set up an independent and time-bound investigation into the disappearance of Abubakar Idris, widely known as Dadiyata, who was allegedly abducted from his residence in Barnawa, Kaduna State, on August 2, 2019.

In a letter dated February 16, the public-interest law and justice-sector accountability group said the case has remained unresolved nearly seven years after masked gunmen reportedly seized Idris.

It noted that repeated appeals by his family and civil society organisations have yielded no publicly known outcome of any credible investigation.

The renewed demand followed recent remarks attributed to former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, during a media interview where he reportedly suggested that Idris was likely abducted in an operation linked to the state.

The group said no arrests, prosecutions or transparent investigative findings have followed those claims.

It argued that the gravity of the allegations, particularly those suggesting official complicity and an unaddressed confession, requires immediate federal intervention.

In a statement issued yesterday, the executive director of the centre, Ikenna Ezekwem, said, “The disappearance of any citizen is grievous; the disappearance of a citizen amid credible allegations of state involvement is a constitutional emergency,

“Where the public is now being told that a law enforcement officer confessed, yet nothing happened, the message sent is one of impunity. Nigeria cannot normalise enforced disappearances.

“An enforced disappearance is not just one crime, it is a chain of crimes that continues every day the victim’s fate and whereabouts are concealed.

This is not about politics. It is about the minimum standards of a constitutional democracy. If a citizen can be taken from his home and vanish for years while institutions look away, then none of us is truly protected by the law,” he added.