The Katsina State Government has confirmed the tragic death of retired Major General Rabe Abubakar, a former Director of Defence Information and Nigerian Army spokesperson, who passed away while being held in bandits’ captivity.

The announcement was made in an official statement on Saturday by the Katsina State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Dr. Nasiru Mu’azu, who described the incident as a dark and deeply painful milestone for both the state and the country.

According to the state government’s briefing, the retired senior military officer succumbed to severe health complications arising from diabetes and hypertension while inside the kidnappers’ forest den.

Major General Abubakar and his wife, Amina Abubakar, were ambushed and abducted on May 30, 2026, while traveling near Zakin Baure village along the Marabar Musawa–Kafinsoli road in the Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State. The couple was traveling to a wedding ceremony when armed men shot at their vehicle. While their driver managed to escape despite sustaining gunshot wounds, the former military spokesperson and his wife were dragged into the forest.

Commissioner Mu’azu revealed that the tragic outcome occurred despite sustained, high-level efforts by the Katsina State Government and federal security apparatuses to secure a safe release.

The death follows a brief, highly publicized four-minute proof-of-life video released by the armed abductors on June 6. In the video, a visibly frail Major General Abubakar and his wife made a desperate appeal to President Bola Tinubu and Governor Dikko Umaru Radda for urgent intervention.

The gang, reportedly linked to a notorious regional bandit leader named Kachallah Muhammad, had explicitly refused standard monetary terms, instead issuing high-stakes political demands for their freedom. They demanded the immediate release of three of their detained gang members (identified as Sani, Aminu, and Nasiru), who were previously apprehended by state forces, alongside the wholesale return of massive livestock herds confiscated during recent military clearance operations in the North-West zone.

Reacting to the development, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda characterized the General’s death as an immense tragedy that underscores the brutal human cost of the North-West security crisis.

The Katsina State Government strongly condemned the bandits’ tactics, reiterating that the state will not bow to criminal blackmail or trade institutional justice for hostage leverage. Governor Radda extended his deepest condolences to the Abubakar family and the Nigerian Armed Forces, reaffirming that the state’s collaborative operations with the military and federal intelligence units to track down the syndicate and neutralize forest-based operational nodes remain entirely unshakeable.