Musa Muhammad Kamarawa, a former Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to former Zamfara State Governor and current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has accused senior police officers of threatening to kill him if he disclosed his relationship with the minister during interrogation in 2021.
Kamarawa also accused the officers of extortion, illegal detention, unlawful search of his residence, and seizure of his money and personal property without due process.
Meanwhile, Kamarawa called on the Inspector-General of Police to immediately investigate two senior officers identified as CSP Hussaini Gimba and CSP Hassan Gimba over what he described as abuse of office, intimidation and gross violation of his fundamental human rights.
According to him, the officers allegedly carried out a partial and biased investigation against him while also confiscating his belongings and conducting a search of his residence without a valid court-issued warrant.
“The alleged police officers, CSP Hussaini Gimba and CSP Hassan Gimba, have investigated me partially, looted my money, property and illegally searched my house without a valid search warrant,” he alleged.
Kamarawa further claimed that during interrogation, he was repeatedly warned not to mention his connection with Matawalle, despite serving under him during his tenure as governor of Zamfara State.
He alleged that the officers threatened him with death, claiming that the same fate befell missing activist Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Dadiyata, and Saminu S/Fada Gusau.
“In the course of investigation, I was coerced by them that I shouldn’t make any attempt to disclose my relationship with former Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Bello Matawalle, current Minister of State for Defence,” Kamarawa said.
“That was the main reason in all the video clips they recorded on me under duress, I never disclosed our relationship with him because they threatened to kill me as they killed Dadiyata and Saminu S/Fada Gusau amongst others in my presence at Operations Yaki Kaduna.
“But they kept asking about my relationship with my uncle, former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, who was their main target as instructed by Matawallen Maradun.”
Kamarawa questioned why investigators allegedly prevented him from mentioning Matawalle in the statements he wrote while in custody.
“My concern is that I was the SSA to Matawallen Maradun during his tenure as governor in Zamfara State, but why did they never allow me to mention him even in my statement, which I wrote under duress? Hence, there is a need to investigate the motive behind these,” he added.
Abubakar Idris, known as Dadiyata, was abducted by gunmen from his home in Barnawa, Kaduna State, in August 2019. The lecturer and social media critic was taken away in his car and his whereabouts have remained unknown since, with his disappearance widely considered a forced abduction.
In February, former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, alleged that former Kano State Governor and former National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, was responsible for the abduction of Dadiyata.
El-Rufai made the statement during an interview on Arise News Prime Time, where he addressed questions regarding the activist’s disappearance and clarified that Kaduna State authorities were not involved.
Dadiyata’s disappearance attracted widespread attention from civil society organisations and members of the public, while the police launched investigations into the case at the time.
El-Rufai said that Dadiyata’s criticism was directed at the Kano government.
“He (Dadiyata) is a critic of the Kano government, it was Ganduje that was his problem, go and check his timeline, I don’t even know him,” he said.
He explained that Kaduna State authorities only became aware of the activist after the family reported the abduction to the police.
“We only got a report of Dadiyata’s existence after his family reported to the police that he was abducted,” he said.
El-Rufai also referred to a police officer’s alleged confession regarding the abduction.
“Three days after Dadiyata’s abduction, a policeman posted from Kano to Ekiti confessed to someone that they were sent from Kano and abducted Dadiyata, and felt bad about it,” he said.
SaharaReporters previously reported that seven years after the mysterious disappearance of Dadiyata, his wife, Khadija Ahmed Lane, renewed her emotional plea to authorities to bring her husband back, dead or alive.
Social media commentator and Ambassador-designate Reno Omokri visited the family home in Kaduna, where Khadija recounted the painful events.
“He was taken from our house,” she said quietly. “I pray, whoever is in charge of this, we pray one day he come back. We will know something, if he’s alive or not. We pray one day he will come back. Inshallah.”
Standing at the exact spot where the incident occurred, she explained how her husband was seized.
“He was in front of this building. He came out from his car. The car was parked here. He came out from his car. And they took him from here,” she said, pointing to the front gate.