Kano aides questioned by DSS

Nigeria’s Department of State Services questioned five aides to Kano governor Abba Kabir Yusuf on April 11 after a petition accused them of cyberbullying Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. (guardian.ng) The aides named in local reports were Sanusi Bature Dawakin-Tofa, Ibrahim Adam, Salisu Yahaya Hotoro, Nuhu Dambazau and Mukhtar S. Yahuza. The Guardian and other outlets said they spent about four hours with the security service in Kano. (guardian.ng, dailypost.ng) The petition was dated April 10 and was filed under the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Kwankwaso’s political camp. It accused the officials of coordinated online harassment and defamation on social media, especially Facebook. (guardian.ng, solacebase.com) The Department of State Services is Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, and its invitations often carry more weight than a routine police summons. In this case, the aides were later released on self-recognition, and local reports said no formal charge had been announced by Saturday night. (dailypost.ng, solacebase.com) The case lands in the middle of a split inside Kano politics. Kwankwaso, the former governor and 2023 presidential candidate, formally joined the African Democratic Congress on March 30 after leaving the New Nigeria Peoples Party, while Yusuf remains Kano’s governor. (thecable.ng, channelstv.com) That rivalry has increasingly played out online as much as in party offices. SolaceBase said a Kwankwasiyya spokesman, Habibu Sale Mohammed, argued the movement filed its own complaint after saying its members had also been arrested or detained over similar allegations. (solacebase.com) Rights groups have already raised alarms about how cyberbullying claims are being used in Kano. Amnesty International said in February that critics of Yusuf had been questioned or detained by the Department of State Services after social media posts and satire aimed at the governor. (dailytrust.com) Supporters of the governor reject the idea that only one side is being targeted. BusinessDay reported this week that a Kano group accused Kwankwaso loyalists of running their own online attacks against Yusuf and other rivals, and said enforcement should be based on evidence. (businessday.ng) By late April 11, neither the Department of State Services nor the Kano State Government had issued an official public statement on the questioning, according to multiple local reports. For now, the immediate outcome is narrow: five aides were questioned, released, and the political fight moved from Facebook posts into a security file. (dailypost.ng, solacebase.com)