The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has reportedly detained the Chief Security Officer (CSO) and Aide-de-Camp (ADC) attached to Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, amid escalating political tensions within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The two police officers have reportedly been in detention at the Force Headquarters in Abuja since Thursday, August 20, 2026, according to multiple sources familiar with the development.
Sources said the reported detention followed the withdrawal of security personnel attached to Governor Radda, a development that has heightened concerns over the growing political and security tensions surrounding the governor.
The crisis is believed to have been triggered by the destruction of campaign billboards belonging to Ibrahim Kabir Masari, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Political Matters, by suspected miscreants in Katsina.
The destruction of the billboards was reportedly blamed by some political actors on the governor’s CSO and ADC. The allegations have since intensified tensions between political camps within the Katsina APC.
According to sources, the two security officers were subsequently detained following an alleged directive from Masari, with the Inspector-General of Police reportedly ordering or overseeing their detention at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The development has exposed what appears to be an increasingly bitter rivalry between two major political blocs within the Katsina APC — the camp associated with Governor Radda and another linked to Masari and influential political actors in Abuja.
The disagreement has reportedly become more pronounced in recent weeks, raising concerns among party stakeholders that the internal power struggle could spill into the state’s political and security structures as the country moves towards the 2027 general elections.
Sources close to the matter questioned the circumstances surrounding the continued detention of the governor’s ADC and CSO, particularly given their roles as security officers assigned to protect the state’s chief executive.
They also raised concerns over the reported withdrawal of security personnel attached to Governor Radda, arguing that political disagreements should not be allowed to compromise the security arrangements of a sitting governor.
Questions have also been raised over the legal basis for the continued detention of the two officers, with calls for the Nigeria Police Force to publicly clarify the circumstances surrounding their arrest, detention and the reported withdrawal of security personnel from the governor.
The development is considered particularly sensitive because it involves officers directly attached to a sitting governor and comes at a time when political divisions within the ruling party in Katsina appear to be becoming increasingly public.
The reported detention has further fuelled speculation about the depth of the political confrontation between the Radda and Masari-aligned camps, with concerns that the dispute could evolve beyond an internal party disagreement into a broader institutional and security crisis.
As of the time of filing this report, efforts to obtain official comments from the Katsina State Government, the Nigeria Police Force and other parties directly linked to the allegations were unsuccessful.
The circumstances surrounding the reported detention could not be independently verified, while the allegation linking the governor’s CSO and ADC to the destruction of Masari’s campaign billboards also remains unverified.
However, the reported detention has intensified concerns among political observers and stakeholders that the political crisis in Katsina may be entering a more serious phase, with the dispute increasingly threatening to extend beyond party politics and into the state’s security architecture.