By Ibanga Isine
Prologue: Former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has spent over a month in custody after he got tangled in a web of serious allegations. His alleged wrongdoings range from financial crimes to claims of illegally tapping the phone of National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
His ordeal started shortly after he returned from Egypt, where he had staged a defiant show to stop his arrest at the airport. But El-Rufai did not just go home and shut his mouth.
He granted an interview where he openly accused his former ally, Ribadu, of plotting his arrest. He also alleged listening to the NSA’s phone call where the order for his arrest was given.
Not long after the interview, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him for questioning. He was released, but not for long. Soon after, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) picked him up and later handed him over to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), where he has remained in custody.
El-Rufai has challenged his long detention. In fact, his lawyers argue that the remand order used in keeping him was invalid and that the duration of his detention has exceeded what the law allows.
They also allege that he has been denied access to his family, legal team, and even medical care, actions they say violate his fundamental rights under Nigerian law.
While no one must be detained outside the bounds of the law, it is equally difficult to ignore the past. Investigation by this newspaper shows that during his time in power, El-Rufai built a reputation for being wicked and often unyielding towards his critics. As governor of Kaduna State, journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who spoke against his policies frequently felt the weight of his raw power.
Records reviewed and accounts from victims show a pattern of arrests and prosecutions under his watch that had serious consequences, with some resulting in loss of lives and others in lasting trauma.
In many cases, properties were demolished despite clear court orders stopping such actions. There are also indications that he worked with security agencies to keep people in detention even after courts had ordered their release. For many of the victims, what happened was not just a failure of justice, but a system that appeared to ignore its own rules.
As one of the victims of his power overreach, I will not delve into my own experience. I will not tell that story here. I watched closely as El-Rufai exercised power without mercy or restraint for opposition.
Today, the tables have turned. The man who was once at the centre of authority now finds himself at its receiving end. It is a moment that reminds us, and very loudly, that power is never permanent.
GuardPost has documented some of the cases of alleged human rights violations, including those with tragic outcomes. We are not doing this out of malice. We are setting the record straight so that Malam El-Rufai and others like him will not forget.
This report is intended to make every public office holder understand this simple truth: no matter how powerful you become, a day will come when you, too, will stand as vulnerable as everyone else.
What we present in this two-part report is only a fraction of the full picture. There are many more cases than we can document or report here. We therefore invite other victims whose cases are not captured here to share their experiences with us via Ibangaisine@gmail.com.
HRM. Galadima Maiwada, the Agom Adara, who was kidnapped and killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen
Galadima Maiwada, the Agom Adara, was reported to have died for resisting attempts by Malam El-Rufai to restructure the Adara Traditional Council to become Kajuru Emirate. The monarch, who had seriously criticised El-Rufai’s handling of the killings in Southern Kaduna and also kicked against the creation of an emirate in his kingdom, was kidnapped with his wife at Maikyali village along Kaduna-Kachia Road in Kachia Local Government area of the state. The police orderly to the monarch and three other persons in the convoy were killed during the attack. While his wife was released barely a week after the attack, the monarch was murdered on October 26, 2018, after ransom was paid. After his death, the governor, who had in Gazette No. 21, Vol. 52 published the order to restructure Adara into an emirate, went ahead and appointed an emir for the area without replacing the Agom for the Adara people who are indigenous to Kajuru. The Fulani are not indigenous to Adara or any part of Kajuru.
Danleeman Isa was the Chief Imam of Kawaran Rafi village in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State and a strong critic of bandits. The cleric blamed El-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari for not taking action to stop the carnage by Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram. Isa was killed by what the then Commissioner of Internal Security, Samuel Aruwan, described as “unknown gunmen” who invaded his home on January 2, 2021. Neither the Kaduna State Government nor the Buhari administration did anything to bring the killers to justice. He died criticising both.
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Comrade Auta Maisamari, a legal practitioner and rights activist who died mysteriously in Kaduna
Auta Maisamari, a rights activist and legal practitioner, was a thorn in the flesh of Malam El-Rufai. He stood up for chiefs and youth leaders from Southern Kaduna, who were arrested on what many believed were trumped-up charges after they questioned the killings of their relatives and mobilised to defend their communities. Maisamari openly accused the governor of enabling the violence in the largely Christian communities of Southern Kaduna. He became a regular face at the Kaduna State Police headquarters, the Department of State Services (DSS), and the courts, where he worked tirelessly to secure the release of detained community leaders and youths. On June 18, 2020, he died from an unknown sickness shortly after visiting a security facility in Kaduna. Many believed the outspoken lawyer may have been exposed to poison during one of his visits.
Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, former CBN Deputy Governor and rights activist
Obadiah Mailafia, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was a harsh critic of both Mr. El-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr. Mailafia in 2020 said on a radio show with the Nigeria Info Abuja, 95.1FM, that some pardoned terrorists revealed that a serving northern governor was a Boko Haram leader. Mailafia also alluded to the fact that an ethnic cleansing was going on in Southern Kaduna, where Christians were being murdered almost daily without one of the killers being arrested. The DSS summoned the former CBN governor for questioning in connection with the allegations. Mr. Mailafia became ill unexpectedly, and many claimed he was poisoned and denied treatment in several hospitals before he died on September 19, 2021, in Abuja.
Abubakar Idris, a social media personality also known as Dadiyata
Abubakar Idris, a social media personality better known as Dadiyata, has been missing since Friday, August 2, 2019. He was abducted by heavily armed men while driving to his residence at Barnawa in Kaduna State. Days after Dadiyata was taken away, Malam El-Rufai’s son, Bashir, went on his verified Twitter account mocking the activist. “The same clowns who encouraged him when he was creating false stories and capitalising on lies that could endanger lives solely for political ends are the same individuals trending hashtags asking #WhereisDadiyata. Dangerous lies in public space have consequences,” he wrote. To date, security agencies have not invited the younger El-Rufai to explain what he knows about the activist’s whereabouts. Dadiyata was a lecturer at the Federal University Dutsinma, Katsina State. He was 34 years old at the time he was taken away.
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The District Head of Gidan Zaki, Chief Haruna Kuye, was killed with his son for defending his chiefdom
Haruna Kuye, the District Head of Gidan Zaki, blamed Malam El-Rufai for the killings in Southern Kaduna during an interview on August 1, 2020. He spoke after suspected Fulani herdsmen attacked communities under his chiefdom, killing people, injuring many, and burning houses and food crops. Instead of protection, Mr. Kuye and other traditional rulers were arrested and questioned on the governor’s orders. After his release, the monarch and his family fled Gidan Zaki for safety. When he later met this reporter in a hideout far from his community, Mr Kuye, in a recorded interview, said that during a meeting with Malam El-Rufai, attended by other monarchs whose communities were affected by attacks by suspected herdsmen, the then-governor threatened them against defending their communities, claiming they were taking the law into their own hands. He also expressed fears, saying he believed that agents of the government were tracking him and that his family was at risk. Unfortunately, Chief Kuye returned to Gidan Zaki two months later, and on November 17, 2020, unknown gunmen stormed his house and killed him and his son, leaving his wife and daughter in critical condition.
Ishaku Damina, a first-class monarch of the Kurama Kingdom in Southern Kaduna
Ishaku Damina, a first-class monarch of the Kurama Kingdom in Southern Kaduna, was detained for more than a month in 2017 on what many considered false charges, on the orders of Malam El-Rufai. When the court found no evidence against him, he was eventually granted bail. After his release, the governor suspended him for years and withheld his pay, a move widely seen as an attempt to break the revered monarch and subject him to severe hardship. The monarch later died in May 2021.
Saidu Adamu, former Assistant Director of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Campaign Council
Saidu Adamu, Assistant Director of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Campaign Council, along with two youth leaders, El Abbas Mohammed and Talib Mohammed, were detained in Kaduna. Operatives of the DSS arrested them on the orders of Malam El-Rufai, who accused them of planning to incite violence ahead of the 2019 elections. After he was released on strict bail conditions, Mr. Adamu recounted, “I was just sitting in my parlour in the morning, around 9:30 am, when security operatives arrived in four Hilux vehicles and arrested me. When we got to the DSS office, they told me Governor El-Rufai ordered my arrest. I asked, for what? They said I was inciting violence because I had been speaking against the Muslim-Muslim ticket. I told them, yes, I’ve been talking about the Muslim-Muslim ticket, and I will never stop talking about it.” Malam El-Rufai first introduced the Muslim-Muslim ticket in Kaduna, where he and the deputy governor were Muslims and ignoring the religious sensitivity of the multi-religious state.
Elias Gora, the District Head of Gora in Zangon Kataf, Kaduna State, was in hiding—not only because of repeated attacks on his community by suspected Fulani herdsmen, but also out of fear of arrest by Malam El-Rufai. The monarch had earlier been arrested by the governor, alongside other Southern Kaduna District heads, in 2020. He survived a murder attempt on December 18, 2020, when suspected herdsmen invaded his compound while he was still in hiding. His neighbours, however, were not so lucky. Angered that they could not find the monarch and members of his family, the gunmen moved to the next compound and killed Peter Akaho (70), Ayuba Steven Sheyin (67), Jummai Ayuba (55), Ishaya Joel (35), Yakubu Saviour (14), Ayuba Goodluck (11), and Patience Ayuba (6). The Gan Gora community was attacked three times in 2020. The first incident occurred on January 17, when gunmen opened fire on the local market, killing two people and injuring several others. Malam El-Rufai was reportedly angered by the monarch’s decision to organise local youths to defend the area.
Dr. John Danfulani, a former lecturer at Kaduna State University
Dr. John Danfulani, a former lecturer at Kaduna State University, spent two weeks in prison after criticising the Malam El-Rufai administration. Ironically, he had once been a strong supporter of the governor, but things changed when he began to speak out against the government. Although he won his case in a lower court, he insisted he was being persecuted simply for expressing his views. Before he was taken to prison, Mr. Danfulani said the Nigerian Constitution guaranteed his right to freely criticise the actions of both the state and federal governments. After his release, the academic resigned his appointment with the government, citing harassment.
To be continued….
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