Kaduna businessman sues Sheikh Gumi over detention, theft claims

A Kaduna businessman, Nasir Musa Idris, has filed multiple criminal complaints against Islamic scholar Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi and six others over allegations of wrongful detention of his Moroccan wife, theft of $20,000 and 6,000 Saudi riyals, defamation, forgery and related offences.

Court documents seen by SaharaReporters show that the complaints were lodged before the Chief Magistrate Court in Barnawa, the Chief Magistrate Court in Kabala Doki, and the Sharia Court of Kaduna State.

In one application dated April 28, 2026, filed before the Chief Magistrate Court, Kaduna Magisterial Division at Barnawa, Idris named four defendants: Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, Amal Ahmad Gumi, Mahmud Ahmad Gumi and Mubarak Ahmad Gumi.

The filing accuses them of offences including “criminal conspiracy, criminal trespass, theft, enticement of a married women, defamation of character, injurious falsehood, and false statement in declaration” under the Kaduna State Penal Code Law 2017.

A separate filing before the Sharia Court, Kaduna Judicial Division, dated May 7, 2026 and marked case No. 026/2026, names six defendants. In addition to the four listed above, it includes Umar Shahada (Sambo) and Abubakar Abdullahi Goron Namaye, who the court papers describe as “associates and close collaborators of the 1st Defendant (Dr Ahmad Abubakar Gumi).”

The documents describe Gumi as “a person of influence who holds himself out as a religious leader.” His wife, Amal Ahmad Gumi, also referred to as Amal Elouakili, is named as the second defendant. Mahmud Ahmad Gumi and Mubarak Ahmad Gumi are described as his sons.

The Sharia Court filing alleges offences including “criminal conspiracy, wrongful restraint and wrongful confinement, criminal trespass, procuration of a woman” under the Sharia Penal Code.

A third application filed at the Chief Magistrate Court in Kabala Doki, under case No. KMD/DC/2026, also names the same six defendants. It alleges “criminal conspiracy, giving false information and making use of a false document with intent that it be believed to be genuine” under Sections 59 and 345 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law.

In that filing, Idris asked the court to issue a warrant of arrest “in the first instance,” arguing that “service of summons is likely to be impracticable and may be evaded, thereby frustrating the course of justice.”

According to the complainant, he “lawfully contracted a valid Islamic marriage with one Khadija Diab, a Moroccan national, after fulfilling all requisite legal and immigration formalities” in October 2024. He said he processed the necessary documentation and brought her to Nigeria, where they lived together at No. 2A/2B Block of Flats, Alkali Close, Kaduna.

He further stated that neither he nor his wife had any prior relationship with Gumi, “save for a single introduction made by the Complainant at Dialogue Pharmacy, Isa Kaita Road, Kaduna, merely because the 1st Defendant’s wife is also a Moroccan.”

The filing stressed: “Beyond this introduction, there exists no familial, marital, or legal relationship whatsoever between the Complainant’s wife and the 1st Defendant.”

Idris alleged that on or about September 16, 2025, he received a call through the third defendant saying Gumi had claimed that his wife had complained about him and requested that she be brought to his residence for counselling. He said that, relying on Gumi’s “perceived religious standing” and acting in good faith, he took his wife to the defendants’ residence and was persuaded to leave her there.

From that point, the complaint says, the defendants “wrongfully restrained and exerted undue influence over the Complainant’s wife, preventing her from returning to her matrimonial home and denying the Complainant access to her.”

The businessman also alleged that repeated attempts to recover his wife were met with resistance. The documents say the first and second defendants imposed “unlawful and extraneous conditions, including demands for the provision of a motor vehicle, financial benefits, and permission for the wife to engage in employment against the wishes of the Complainant.”

The filings further claim that the defendants “continued to harbour and detain the Complainant’s wife without lawful justification, thereby interfering with his lawful marital rights.”

In the Sharia Court papers, Idris said the defendants “collectively began to interfere with the marital relationship between the Complainant and his wife” after he left her in their custody. He added that they prevented and frustrated efforts to regain access to her and return her to the matrimonial home.

The documents also allege that the defendants “harboured and maintained the Complainant’s wife in their residence and engaged her in activities without the consent of the Complainant.”

Idris further alleged theft. He said that on or about September 19, 2025, the second defendant, acting on the instructions of the first defendant and accompanied by unidentified persons, entered his residence without consent and removed his personal belongings, including a travelling bag containing $20,000 and 6,000 Saudi riyals, along with other valuables.

“The said acts were carried out without any lawful justification,” the filing states.

The businessman also accused Gumi of defamation, alleging that the scholar made and circulated false and malicious statements against him, claiming immoral and unnatural conduct with the intent of damaging his reputation. The complaint says the statements were false and had exposed him “to public ridicule, reputational harm, and restriction in his freedom of movement.”

A major part of the case concerns a marriage-related document allegedly issued by the Sharia Court in Malali, Kaduna. Idris said Gumi represented himself as the lawful guardian, or Wali, of his wife before that court and gave information he described as false and misleading.

Based on those alleged misrepresentations, a marriage-related certificate was said to have been issued and signed by Gumi in a capacity the complainant disputes. Idris said he later challenged the validity of the document before the same court, which, he claimed, set it aside and ordered that it should not be relied upon in any court.

Despite that order, the complainant alleged that Gumi continued to present the certificate in other proceedings.

The filings also say that even after attempts at reconciliation, including the delivery of personal items to his wife on November 3, 2025, the defendants rejected the effort and continued to pressure him to dissolve the marriage.

“The Complainant in furtherance of reconciliation, made effort to deliver personal items for his wife to the residence of the 1st – 4th Defendants,” the filing said. “That acting on the instruction of the 1st Defendant, the said items were rejected and returned to the Complainant whereof the Defendants frustrated and undermine the Complainant’s genuine effort at reconciliation.”

Counsel to the complainant, M.B. Alhassan Esq. and M.S. Aliyu Esq. of M.B. Alhassan & Co., No. 1A Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna, are handling the matter.

The allegations have not yet been independently tested in open court, and none of the defendants has publicly responded in the documents cited.