{"id":97039,"date":"2026-01-08T07:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=97039"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:55:18","slug":"zamfara-government-accuses-defence-minister-of-using-nsas-office-to-harass-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=97039","title":{"rendered":"Zamfara Government accuses Defence Minister of using NSA\u2019s Office to harass opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Our Correspondent<\/strong>
\nGusau, January 7, 2026<\/p>\n

The Zamfara State Government has raised the alarm over what it described as the use of federal security apparatus to harass and intimidate opposition figures in the state, alleging the involvement of the Minister of State for Defence and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the state government accused the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, of orchestrating the alleged abduction of Saleem Abubakar, a Technical Assistant in the Office of the Zamfara State Governor, through operatives linked to the NSA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Matawalle was former Zamfara Governor, who was sacked in the last election by the sitting governor, Dauda Lawal.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the statement signed by the Governor\u2019s spokesperson, Sulaiman Bala Idris, Abubakar was reportedly abducted in Abuja without an arrest warrant and taken to an undisclosed location. The government claimed that he was moved between different facilities in an attempt to conceal his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most unfortunate and worrying part of the abduction of Saleem Abubakar is that it was syndicated through the office of the NSA by the State Minister for Defence,\u201d the statement alleged.<\/p>\n

The Zamfara Government described the incident as a \u201cperilous precedent\u201d that threatens the neutrality of Nigeria\u2019s security institutions, warning that the alleged actions amount to political persecution and federal impunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot afford to fold our arms and watch the highest security office of the country being used as a tool of political persecution,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The state government called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene by calling the Office of the National Security Adviser to order, stressing that such actions could damage Nigeria\u2019s democratic credentials and international reputation.<\/p>\n

It further maintained that if there were any allegations against Abubakar, the appropriate step should have been to charge him in court rather than subjecting him to what it described as an illegal abduction.<\/p>\n

The Zamfara Government said it is closely monitoring the situation and vowed to pursue the matter to its \u201clogical conclusion\u201d to ensure that justice is served.<\/p>\n

As of the time of filing this report, neither the Office of the National Security Adviser or Minister of State (Defence) has reacted to the state government’s statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Our Correspondent Gusau, January 7, 2026 The Zamfara State Government has raised the alarm over what it described as the use of federal security apparatus to harass and intimidate opposition figures in the state, alleging the involvement of the Minister of State for Defence and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[568,1034,7810,497],"class_list":["post-97039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-matawalle","tag-nsa","tag-saleem","tag-zamfara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}