Professor Hafsat Ganduje, the wife of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, shunned an invitation extended to her by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, to report for questioning, last week, over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son, Abdualzeez.
Mrs Ganduje was invited to report last Thursday to the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC.
Abdulazeez had dragged his mum, Hafsat Ganduje, to the EFCC, sources familiar with the matter said, suggesting a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment.
Mr Ganduje, the governor, had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. He has struggled to untangle himself from the public perception that he is a corrupt public servant since 2018 when Daily Nigerian published a series of videos that showed the governor collecting money from a government contractor.
According to sources who saw Abdulazeez’s petition, he reported that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million Naira as “facilitation commission”.
According to Premium Times, Abdulazeez said he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs Ganduje.
“But three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he wanted and had paid the first family for had been allocated to other buyers and he then requested to be refunded,” one source added.
Asked to comment on the matter, a spokesperson for Kano State Government, Mohammed Garba, said, “I am not aware” and, so, he could not comment.
EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, did not comment on the matter when contacted on Monday.
But insiders said Mrs Ganduje could be arrested if she refuses to report for questioning. Unlike her husband, who by virtue of his office, enjoys immunity from arrest and prosecution, Mrs Ganduje enjoys no such constitutional immunity.
Is Ganduje running a corrupt government?
In October 2018, video clips reportedly recorded by spy camera were published by an online medium Daily Nigerian showing the governor receiving wads of dollar notes in what appears to be bribe payments from contractors. The governor, through his commissioner for information, however, denied the allegations and claimed the video clips were doctored to blackmail him and threatened legal suit to the publisher of Daily Nigerian, the journalist who released the video clips.
In November 2018, Ganduje sued Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar for alleged defamation over the publications of the bribery videos. On June 30, 2021, Ganduje attempted to withdraw the lawsuit with sources saying that he intends to refile at a later date. However, on July 6, counsel to the Daily Nigerian Muhammad Dan’Azumi, filed a counter-claim that Ganduje’s lawsuit was baseless and a waste of the court’s time. The next day, Justice S. B. Namalam granted Ganduje’s motion to withdraw but ordered him to pay ₦400,000 to Jaafar and the Daily Nigerian each. In August 2021, Jaafar said that Ganduje had not paid the ₦800,000 or contacted his lawyers to arrange the payments.
On July 15, 2021, Ganduje filed another defamation case against Jaafar and Daily Nigerian. Previously, Jaafar had countersued for ₦300,000.
Threats against publisher
On March 19, 2021, Ganduje reiterated his claim that the videos were doctored to BBC Hausa and said that he had plans to ‘deal with’ the journalists who published the videos. On March 22, 2021, Jaafar Jaafar sent a letter to the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu stating that the interview amounted to a threat and Ganduje should be held responsible if anything happens to him. The letter also reiterated claims that Jaafar had been in intense danger since the videos were released and that he had been made de facto “persona non-grata” in Kano State along with a call for an investigation into Ganduje. Kano State Commissioner of Information Mohammed Garba defended Ganduje, claiming that the “deal with” remarks referenced the then-ongoing defamation lawsuit.
The next month, Jaafar fled his home in Abuja due to death threats and unidentified men following him (he had stopped permanently living in Kano in 2018); later in April, police officers went to Daily Nigerian offices in search of Jaafar. The officers gave employees a letter summoning Jaafar to police headquarters for questioning about alleged “criminal conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and inciting violence.” Jaafar remained in hiding and in May, fled with his family to the United Kingdom in fear of the death threats. He said that he would remain overseas “until this regime can guarantee my safety and protect freedom of the press.”
Pressure to remove anti-corruption official
In later June 2021, the Daily Nigerian reported that Ganduje was pressuring the Kano State House of Assembly to remove [[Muhuyi MagaJi Rimingado]] from his position as Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC). Earlier in June, Rimingado, who had been under public pressure to investigate Ganduje since the 2018 bribery scandal, had requested information on construction of the Kano Cancer Centre and the state government’s procurement of diesel. The Cancer Centre’s construction was purportedly controlled by an associate of the Ganduje family while the government diesel procurement was under the direct control of Ganduje’s family members. When Rimingado began to look into the contracts and nature of the Cancer Centre’s construction and diesel procurement, Ganduje pushed for his removal throughout June 2021.
In early July 2021, the Kano State House of Assembly suspended Rimingado for a month over ‘the rejection of an accountant deployed to the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission from the office of the State Accountant General.’ House spokesman, Uba Abdullahi, claimed that the office of the Accountant General sent a petition to the state House of Assembly for intervention and Majority Leader Labaran Abdul Madari appointed a investigative committee. Ganduje later appointed Mahmoud Balarabe, Director for Public Prosecution in the Kano State Ministry of Justice, as acting Chairperson of the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission.
On July 24, 2021, Justice Sanusi Ado-Ma’aji granted a motion filed by Rimingado to halt the House of Assembly from its investigation. Ado-Ma’aji adjourned the case until August 6 for further hearings. Despite the ruling, on July 27, the House of Assembly’s investigative committee presented its report with the claim that Rimingado had faked illness to avoid testimony and acted improperly in declining the office of the Accountant General’s accountant. The committee then recommended that Rimingado be relieved of his position, arrested, and prosecuted along with recommending that the accountant, Isah Yusif, begin at the PCACC and the House set up a new committee to look into the PCACC’s finances under Rimingado. Later that day, the Kano State Police Command detained Rimingado for questioning over alleged forgery and false declaration.
