A former Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Senator Shehu Buba, who represents Bauchi South Senatorial District, is again facing allegations of supporting banditry, allegations he has consistently denied since they first surfaced in 2024.
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The renewed claims, his response to them, and the calls for an independent investigation now form a single thread running back two years, taking in a governor’s petition to the President, a DSS detention, a defamation petition to the Force CID and a fresh set of accusations made online.
The current allegations came from a local resident identified only as Hassan, who accused the senator in an interview with a social media influencer of being one of the politicians aiding bandits in the area.
Hassan also alleged that individuals linked to the bandit kingpin Dogo Gide were brought to Abuja for specialised training, allegedly facilitated by an aide of the senator.
In an interview published by Albarka Radio in Bauchi on Thursday, Buba accused Hassan of being sponsored by politicians to damage his reputation.
The senator disclosed that he had submitted a formal petition to the Inspector-General of Police, and said four suspects had been arrested and would soon be charged. He described Hassan as the primary suspect and said he had fled to Niger Republic, from where he continued to run live internet broadcasts allegedly funded by political opponents.
“Those sponsoring him cannot change destiny; if God says I will be, nobody can stop me using social media propaganda against me,” he said.
The police action could not be independently confirmed. The Force Public Relations Officer, Ani Iniedu, did not answer calls or respond to messages. The senator’s phone numbers and those of his media aide, Sabo Muhammad, were switched off for hours, and messages sent on Friday could not be delivered.
In Bauchi, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Nafiu Habib, said the command could not take a position in the absence of a formal complaint.
“We have not received any petition by anyone on the said allegation, so we don’t have a stake in the matter,” he said.
Buba’s ally, the Managing Director of Nixon Energy and Nixon Telecoms, Mukhtar Gwarzo, defended the senator while urging the authorities to investigate thoroughly, saying the allegations were serious because they touched on national security and that the truth must be established clearly and without fear or favour.
Gwarzo, who said he had known the senator for more than two decades, spoke to his character.
“I have known him in quiet moments and in difficult seasons. I have watched his character under pressure. I know the values he carries, the discipline he lives by, and the quiet integrity that has guided his life,” he said.
He argued that the senator’s previous responsibilities in the National Assembly reflected the trust placed in him. “The man I know is not the man being painted in these stories. If he were the kind of person who would support, protect, or benefit from banditry and terrorism, he would never have been entrusted with one of the most sensitive positions in the National Assembly.”
He was explicit that he was not asking for the matter to be dropped.
“I am not asking anyone to close their eyes. I am not asking for silence. Let every allegation be thoroughly investigated,” he said. “Let the DSS speak clearly. Let the National Assembly examine the matter with the seriousness it deserves. Let the Hajj authorities explain the processes that were followed.”
Anyone found culpable, he added, should face the full weight of the law.
The current allegations are not the first of their kind.
The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, sent a petition to President Bola Tinubu dated 19 September 2024, alleging that Buba, through an aide named Yahaya Ibrahim, registered and funded a suspected Zamfara bandit, Abubakar Idris, and one Zainab Gado, for the Hajj pilgrimage.
According to the letter, DSS operatives in Bauchi State visited the Bauchi State Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board during the 2024 pilgrims’ operations and demanded the e-passports of Idris and Gado, both registered as intending pilgrims. Gado’s passport had already been released and she had departed for the Hajj. Idris’ passport was handed to the DSS, and he was subsequently detained on suspicion of involvement in banditry and kidnapping in Zamfara State.
The governor stated that records at the Pilgrims Welfare Board showed both individuals were registered through Ibrahim, a senior legislative aide to the senator, and described the development as “deeply worrisome as it suggests the senator’s complicity in supporting, enabling and empowering bandits to cause mayhem and go unscathed.”
A DSS spokesperson, contacted on the investigation, said findings “would be published at the appropriate time, please.” The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the governor, Mukhtar Gidado, and the state Commissioner for Information, Usman Shehu, did not respond to calls or messages.
In 2025, an online publication reported that the senator had facilitated an alleged peace deal with the wanted terror kingpin Bello Turji, a report that generated controversy over his stance on the fight against terrorism.
Buba’s legal team responded with a petition to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, accusing a group of individuals of criminal conspiracy, defamation, cyberstalking and bullying.
In the petition dated 9 September 2025 and addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force CID, his counsel, Musa Ogah, named Hassan, Kibanna AA Square, Jabir Kaura, Ishaq Abubakar (Major) and others as responsible for what it described as a coordinated campaign to tarnish the senator’s reputation, suspected to have been sponsored by politicians uncomfortable with his rising profile in Bauchi South.
Counsel alleged that Hassan was the first to stalk and bully the senator online, accusing him on Facebook and WhatsApp of giving a Kaduna cleric identified as Assadus Sunna money in “Ghana-must-go” bags meant for bandits, and of distributing motorcycles to bandits rather than to constituents.
The petition urged the police to identify those it suspected of bankrolling the alleged perpetrators, warning that a failure to act would embolden further attacks on public office holders.
A former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, called for an independent review of the allegations.
He said the DSS should clarify the status of its investigation and urged the National Assembly to consider an independent probe, given the senator’s former position overseeing the country’s security and intelligence architecture. He also asked the Hajj authorities to explain how Idris was registered and sponsored for the pilgrimage.
The senator, Dalung said, should either be publicly cleared if the allegations are baseless or held accountable if evidence of wrongdoing is established, stressing that “political office, parliamentary status or personal connections should provide no shield against accountability.”
The unusual feature of this matter is that the senator and his most vocal defender are asking for the same thing his critics are: an investigation that concludes.
That is the point on which the story turns. Two years have passed since the Bauchi governor’s petition to the President. A suspect was detained by the DSS. A senior legislative aide was named in official records. And the public position of the DSS remains that its findings will be published at the appropriate time. Whatever the truth of the allegations, an open-ended investigation of this kind is the worst outcome available to everyone. It leaves a serving senator under a permanent cloud he cannot dispel, and it leaves the public with an unanswered question about the man who once chaired the committee overseeing national security.
There is also a legal asymmetry worth naming. The senator has moved twice against his accusers, through the Force CID in 2025 and now through the Inspector-General, with four arrests reported. No comparable movement is visible on the underlying allegations. A criminal justice system that processes defamation complaints faster than the security allegations that prompted them will be read by the public in only one way, whatever the merits of either.
Three institutions can end the ambiguity, and each has been called upon by someone friendly to the senator. The DSS can state whether its investigation is open, closed or concluded. The National Assembly can decide whether allegations of this nature against a former chairman of its security committee warrant its own inquiry, and if not, say why. The Hajj authorities can explain how a man later detained on suspicion of banditry came to be registered as an intending pilgrim through a legislative aide’s office.
Until one of them speaks, the matter will continue to be litigated on social media, in live broadcasts from across the border, and in police petitions. That serves no one, least of all a senator who says he is innocent.
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