Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have whisked away the Editor-in-Chief of the popular Hausa newspaper, Almizan, Ibrahim Musa, in Kano.
Musa, who was on his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj Umrah, accompanied by a family member, Binta Sulaiman, was taken away by Nigeria’s secret police at the Aminu Kano International Airport in the early hours of Wednesday.
Speaking in a statement on behalf of the family signed by Abdullahi Usman, no reason was given to the family by the DSS operatives who left behind the person he was with.
The family calls on the authorities to unconditionally release Musa and ensure he is safe.
“Meanwhile, no reasons have been provided by the authorities for his abduction, even as he is known for his role in the call for the release of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who was arrested in the wake of a clampdown and extrajudicial killing of about 1000 of his followers by the Nigerian government in 2015 in Zaria, Kaduna State.
“He was part of the campaign that got the Federal High Court judgment ordering the release and compensation of Sheikh Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, for which it is believed the DSS who lost in the case are displeased.
“Human rights organizations, especially Amnesty International (AI), had pressured the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru Elrufai, to publicly announce that his government had buried about 350 people killed in the extrajudicial killing in a mass grave at Mando village in Kaduna.
“Ibrahim Musa is known to have been active in speaking against the acts of state terrorism, extrajudicial killings, and marginalization of a minority group of Muslims by the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari.
“He placed his life on the line to ensure justice was done, and thousands of those arrested following the state-managed mass murder were released by the government using available judicial means.
“We wish to call for the immediate release and safety of Ibrahim Musa, whose only crime is standing against genocide and disregarding law and order perpetrated by those in power under the Buhari regime.
“We also wish to draw the attention of the authorities and other stakeholders to the dangers behind extending the murder activities in which innocent men, women, and children were extrajudicially killed by the immediate past regime to the current regime of President Bola Tinubu.
“We want to believe that the current government of President Bola Tinubu would not want to identify itself with the abuse of democratic tenets, human rights abuse, and intimidation through genocide perpetrated by the immediate past regime,” part of the statement reads.
