A Kano State High Court has fixed April 17, 2024, for the arraignment of the immediate past governor of the state, Abdullahi Ganduje, his wife, son, and five others, for alleged bribery.
Ganduje and the others will be arraigned on eight counts bordering on a $413,000 bribery allegation, diversion, and misappropriation of funds to the tune of N1.38bn, among others.
The Federal High Court in Kano ruled that the Kano Public Compliant and Anti-Corruption Commission lacks the power to investigate Ganduje over an alleged $5m bribery video.
Justice Abdullahi Liman, while delivering his judgment, said the offence was a federal offence that could be prosecuted by the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Justice Liman said the Kano anti-graft agency had a limitation in investigating the former governor.
But on Monday, the state governor, Abba Yusuf, urged the EFCC to release the result of its probe into the alleged dollar bribery video involving Ganduje.
Yusuf, in a statement by his spokesperson, Sanusi Tofa, said Ganduje should rather prepare to face his trial instead of talking about non-existent failure in the current administration.
“For whatever option, the Kano State Government would advise the acting National Chairman of APC to show cause why his name, that of his family, and the entire people of Kano should permanently be erased from the global embarrassment that the dollar video has generated,” he said.
However, in a writ of summon sighted by journalists on Tuesday, the Kano State Government, in a criminal suit, named Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Hafsat Umar, Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited and Lesage General Enterprises as respondents and assembled 15 witnesses to appear before the court.
The case is fixed for April 17, 2024, before Justice Usman Na’aba of the state High Court Number Four.
Confirming the development, the state Attorney General, Haruna Dederi, said the case has been filed, and all parties involved will be served accordingly.
“It is very true. We have filed the case, but I cannot confirm whether he is served or not, but he will definitely be served. What he (Ganduje) doesn’t understand is that you cannot run away from the evil day. It will definitely come to you, and this will even serve as a deterrent to all of us.
“He was saying that we can’t prosecute him forgetting that the offence also falls under the category of the state offences. It’s not totally a federal affair,” he said.
