Wednesday, July 22, 2026

El-Rufai reminds me of Dadiyatta who was abducted, made to ‘disappear’: Aisha Yesufu

Aisha Yesufu described Mr El-Rufai as a politician with huge “nuisance value”, and in politics, one must deal with both the “good, bad and ugly.”

• September 10, 2025
Nasir El-Rufai, Dadiyatta, Aisha Yesufu
Nasir El-Rufai, Dadiyatta, Aisha Yesufu

Aisha Yesufu, a social critic and politician, has expressed grave concerns about forming a political alliance with former Governor Nasir El-Rufai due to his alleged rights violations while superintending over Kaduna.

Specifically, Ms Yesufu on Monday disclosed that seeing herself in a political coalition with Mr El-Rufai reminds her of Abubakar ‘Dadiyatta’ Idris, a critic of the former governor, who was kidnapped and made to disappear in August 2019.

“Seeing Peter Obi and Nasir El-Rufai together is a very hard one for a lot of people, myself included. For those who are supporting Peter Obi and seeing what Nasir El-Rufai did as governor of Kaduna State. His utterances. His actions. I mean, anytime I see Nasir El-Rufai, I think about Dadiyatta,” Ms Yesufu said in a YouTube video. “Even though we have met, we didn’t speak. During that ADC unveiling, I was in the row behind the first row. So he came there. He was greeting the person directly in front of me. Any time I see him, I think about Dadiyatta.”

Ms Yesufu added, “If you don’t know, Dadiyatta is a critic of APC, Nasir El-Rufai’s government, that was disappeared. He was abducted from his house in August 2019, and up till now, nothing has been said about him. There was a time that Nasir El-Rufai’s son, there was a tweet he made where he alluded that when he (Dadiyatta) was doing this thing, you people were quiet now hand don touch am kind of a tweet.”

However, Ms Yesufu described Mr El-Rufai as a politician with huge “nuisance value”, and in politics, one must deal with both the “good, bad and ugly.”

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