Loading banners
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.
Missing social media influencer Idris Abubakar aka Dadiyata
Kadijah, the wife of social media influencer, Mr Idris Abubakar, popularly known as Dadiyata, has expressed sorrow over the mocking of her husband’s disappearance by Mr Bashir el-Rufai, son of former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
She spoke in a video interview with an Ambassador-Designate, Mr Reno Omokri, which was released on his X-handle yesterday.
“I felt bad about it. I can’t even explain…,” Kadijah stated in the emotion-laden video, which went viral with over 86,000 impressions on the internet within hours of its release.
Dadiyata, a lecturer at the Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, was intercepted and abducted by unidentified armed men as he drove into his compound in Barnawa, Kaduna State. He has not been seen since then.
Reputed to be a fierce political critic, many socio-political commentators accused the Malam Nasir el-Rufai-led Kaduna State government of being responsible for his disappearance. An accusation the government denied.
However, four months after his disappearance, Mr Bashir el-Rufai, tweeted: “Those same clowns who encourage 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 the public space have consequences.”
Responding to Omokri’s question about how she felt regarding the tweet, Kadijah said she was so sad that she could not explain her feelings.
“We pray that one day, he will come back,” the mother of two, Hassana (12) and Fatima (6), stated, narrating how her husband was abducted by gunmen as he alighted from his car in their compound on August 2nd 2019.
Assuring Kadijah of Dadiyata’s safe return if he is alive, and justice, in the unlikely event of his death, Omokri empathised with the distressed woman.
The Dadiyata matter resurfaced on 14 February 2026, during an ARISE TV interview in which el-Rufai addressed the longstanding allegation that his government was responsible for the renowned social critic’s disappearance. (The Nation)
