MYSTERY: Where Is Dadiyata, The Social Media Influencer?

Abubakar Idris, social media personality better known as Abu Hanifa Dadiyata, has been missing since on Friday, August 2.

It is believed that he was abducted by heavily armed men at about midnight while driving into his residence at Barnawa in Kaduna state.

While his whereabouts remain a mystery, there have been claims that Dadiyata was whisked away by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Dadiyata, a social media influencer said to be loyal to the Kwankwasiyya movement, has been critical of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He is said to also be an avid supporter of Abba Yusuf, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano state in the last general election.

Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa, spokesman of Yusuf’s 2019 campaign, had on August 3, claimed that the social media influencer was “arrested” by the security agency.

He had also called on the DSS to release Dadiyata without any condition.

“Dadiyata is the leading social media activist in Twitter community that protects and projects Kwankwasiyya ideology and the PDP in northern Nigeria,” he had said in a statement.

“We want to use this medium to call on security agencies to as a matter of responsibility release Abubakar Dadiyata unhurt and without any condition.

“As members of the opposition in Kano and Nigeria we will continue to give constructive criticism to the ruling party within the confines of the law.”

Believing that the DSS is behind the abduction of Dadiyata, the PDP also asked the secret police that he be released.

“The PDP therefore demands the DSS high command to speak out as well as take urgent steps to secure the release of Idris from his abductors before it is too late,” Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of the opposition party, said in a statement.

“This is especially because the polity is already overheated.”

But the DSS denied having the social media influencer in its custody while the police in Kaduna said they have commenced investigation into the circumstance that led to his disappearance.

Fourteen days after Dadiyata’s arrest or abduction, the PDP new media department staged a protest in Abuja asking the DSS to release him.

His disappearance has also sparked outrage on social media, with many justifying his right to freedom of speech and demanding his release.