Top Northern Elders ‘Abducted’ By Unknown Gunmen After Threat From DSS Director

The whereabouts of two Northern elders have remained unknown after they were taken away on Thursday in a hooded Peugeot vehicle in Kaduna State.

The two elders have been identified as the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT), and the National Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Nastura Ashir Shariff and Balarabe Rufai.

Before they were taken away by unidentified persons in the Peugeot car, Naija News understands they had earlier got a warning from the Department of State Services (DSS) director in the state, who warned CNG against going ahead with a press briefing scheduled for NAF Club, Kaduna.

The group however insisted on going ahead with the press briefing until the management of NAF club told them based on instructions from above, they can’t be allowed to use the venue for the press briefing again.

After this development, it is understood Shariff and Rufai proceeded to apologize and explain to press men who had already gathered for the press briefing after which they dispersed and left the place.

It was while driving along a road adjacent to Nagogo road, that a hooded Peugeot car blocked the lead car which was conveying the two officials and ordered them into the Peugeot and sped off, spokesman of the CNG group, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman told Daily Trust.

“Both their phone lines have been unreachable for the past two hours but the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Kaduna had called us earlier today and tried to threaten us against going ahead with the briefing. We stood our ground and insisted on our right to freedom of association and expression.

“A few minutes afterwards, we were called from the NAF Club and informed that they were ordered from above to refuse us the use of the hall. We then went to tell the pressmen who were already gathered at the venue and told them of the development and asked them to disperse because we had suspended the briefing.

“As we left the NAF Club and drove along a road adjacent to Nagogo road, a hooded Peugeot car blocked the lead car which was conveying the two officials and ordered them into the Peugeot and sped off,” he explained.

He said since that incident, they’ve not been able to establish any contact with the two officials.

Meanwhile, as previously reported by Naija News, the Department of State Services (DSS) has again warned against plans by some people to cause ethnoreligious violence in some parts of the country.

The spokesman of the agency, Dr. Peter Afunanya, disclosed this in a statement made available to Naija News on Wednesday in Abuja.

Afunanya said the latest developments on the alert indicated desperate efforts by these groups to subvert public order.

He said that persons have continued to resort to inciting, unguarded and divisive statements, acts and to pit citizens against one another in order to apparently inflame the embers of tribal and religious discords.

“For the umpteenth time, the Service strongly warns these elements to desist forthwith from their (planned) nefarious acts or face the full wraths of the law.

“The DSS will, in collaboration with other security and law enforcement agencies, take necessary steps to ensure the safety of lives and property of the citizenry,” he said.