Kaduna State Gov’t, Senators & Reps refused to raise the issue of Dadiyata’s whereabouts at the NASS – Shehu Sani

Kaduna State Gov’t, Senators & Reps refused to raise the issue of Dadiyata’s whereabouts at the NASS – Shehu Sani

Shehu Sani, a former senator for Kaduna Central, has taken on his verified Twitter account to say ”The Federal & Kaduna State Gov’t & Kaduna Senators & Reps refused to raise his issue at the NASS.

“The life span of this government is coming to an end without telling Nigerians the whereabouts of this young man Idris Dadiyata”.

The outspoken human rights activist, who was abducted three years ago in his home in Kaduna state, is yet to be found.

It is worth noting that Premium times reported on August 2, 2019, that Mr. Idris Dadiyata, was abducted by unidentified assailants who seized him from his residence in the Barnawa neighborhood of Kaduna State.

He was returning home at about 1 a.m. that day when some armed men breached his home’s security and whisked him away in his BMW car, the state police said at the time.
It’s almost 4 years since that happened, and neither he nor his car has been found.

Abubakar Idris Dadiyata is a social media personality known for his strong criticism of Governor Umar Ganduje. Mr. Idris, who should be 38this year, is known for his critical stance against the ruling class, especially the ruling APC, and has an appreciable following on the microblogging site Twitter, his virtual activism space.

In his bio on the site, he professes himself as a believer in the Kwankwasiyya ideology, a movement by Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, and an opposition faction in Kano politics.

He would often tweet condemning the non-payment of salaries in Kogi State, trolling President Muhammadu Buhari for his certificate forgery allegations, and poking jibes at the Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje, who was filmed stuffing bribes into his babanriga, a local outfit worn in the northern part of the country.

Sometimes, his criticisms take the face of sarcasm, but at other times they are downrightly scathing.

Notorious for arresting critics and often keeping them incommunicado without trial, agents of the State Security Service (SSS) were, at first, fingered for Mr. Idris’ bizarre disappearance.

For what she considered illegal detention, Mrs. Idris sued the SSS Kaduna command, the commissioner of police, and the state government, seeking the “unconditional release” of her husband and payment of the sum of N50 million in damages.

But, both the SSS and police denied arresting Mr. Idris. Their denial deepened worries about what might have been Mr. Idris’ fate, especially because his captors also not demanded a ransom, about a year after.

Regardless, some Nigerians still believe Mr. Idris’ disappearance has to do with his critical anti-government political views.

His “disappearance” is at odds with the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a part of which reads: “No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political instability. . . may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances.”

“Enforced Disappearance” is also described as a crime against humanity by both the treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The former governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, has appealed to the State Security Service and the Kaduna State government to secure the release of his die-hard supporter, Abubakar Idris. He described Mr. Idris as a good Nigerian who always works hard to ensure that truth and justice prevail.

“We have one of our staunch supporters, a good Nigerian called Dadiyata who is from Kaduna State and he is a lecturer at Federal University Dutsema in Katsina State, who was taken right in his house before his family sometime last year and up till now, nobody saw him,” he said.“We worked so hard through the security agencies, especially SSS but we couldn’t find him.

“I am now taking this opportunity to appeal to the federal government, the Kaduna State government, and all t those stakeholders to do whatever they can to bring him back to his family.”

The hope for Mr. Idris’ return dampened, as all efforts to get relevant authorities involved proved abortive.