BRIEFINGNOTES
When a video clip allegedly showing the Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, stuffing his pockets with bundles of dollar notes suspected to be kickback from contractors was released in 2018, the governor instituted a N3 billion libel suit against a publisher, who allegedly released the video. But as soon as the dust settled, he cleverly filed an application seeking to discontinue the court case and was ordered by the court to pay the defendant N800,000 as cost for expenses incurred. Ejiofor Alike writes that the governor will require more than another short-lived court action to save his wife from the current corruption allegation made by her first son
Governor Abdullahi Umar of Kano State’s second term bid was threatened in October 2018 when a video clip allegedly showing the governor stuffing his pockets with bails of dollars suspected to be kickback from contractors, was released to the public by the Publisher of Daily Nigerian, Mr. Ja’afar Ja’afar.
The man who was claimed to be Ganduje was allegedly caught on camera stuffing his Babaringa with bundles of United States dollars. He was seen with another man who was alleged to be one of the state’s contractors.
In the video, the hands of the suspected contractor giving the person, claimed to be Ganduje the kickback was clearly visible while his face was hidden.
When the embarrassing video went viral, many Nigerians had thought that the video would nail the political coffin of Ganduje, considering the anti-corruption posture of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Many had expressed disappointment when President Buhari on January 31, 2019 endorsed the governor for a second term despite the weighty corruption allegation.
However, Ganduje denied being the person in the video.
“We wish to state that there is no iota of truth to these allegations and if indeed there is any such alleged video, it is at best cloned,” the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, had said in a statement.
“The government of Kano state is taking this matter seriously, and will exploit every appropriate and legal avenue to ensure that it gets to the root of the matter and the perpetrators are brought to book,” he reportedly added.
In an apparent ploy to allow the dust raised by the public scorn to settle, Ganduje dragged Ja’afar Ja’afar and others to court for defamation of character and seeking the sum of N3billion as damages.
But no sooner had the dust settled than the governor, through his counsel, Offiong Offiong filed an application dated June 28, 2021 seeking to discontinue the court case.
Expectedly, the counsel to Ja’afar Ja’afar, Mr. U. Eteng and counsel to Penlight Media Limited, Mr. MB Azumi did not object to the application to discontinue the case but demanded the sum of N400 million as part of terms to discontinue the suit.
While Azumi asked for N300 million for damages for wasting their precious time and putting the reputation of his client’s image in jeopardy, counsel for Jaafar, Eteng demanded N100 million.
The defendant’s counsel also demanded an apology to be published in national dailies and a pre-action letter.
But the presiding judge, Justice Suleiman Na-mallam in his ruling granted the sum of N400,000 each to Ja’afar Ja’afar and his company, Penlight Media Limited (Daily Nigerian). He was however silent on the prayer by defendants for the governor to make a public apology in national dailies.
Another Kano State High Court had also insisted that the Kano State House of Assembly lacked the powers to investigate Ganduje over the allegation.
The presiding judge Ahmad Badamasi said the assembly has no capacity of probing a bribe investigation because it is a criminal offence.
Badamasi stated that collecting bribe from contractors is a criminal offence according to Sections 115 and 116 of Penal Code, and should be left for agencies under executive arms such as police and the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to investigate.
But the EFCC said its hands were tied because the governor enjoys constitutional immunity from criminal proceedings.
“The governor is still serving and constitutionally is covered by immunity. Being that as it may, the matter is in the instance sub judice,” the EFCC had posted from its Twitter handle, during a tweet meet organised by Tap Initiative for Citizens Development, a public accountability think-tank.
Ganduje’s family is now facing another corruption allegation following the petition filed against the governor’s wife, Hafsat, a professor, by her first son, Abdulzeez Ganduje.
The governor’s wife was grilled for over five hours on Monday by the EFCC over an alleged involvement in a land scandal.
She was said to have been arrested after she allegedly ignored EFCC’s invitation following the petition filed against her by Ganduje’s first son.
She had earlier been invited to report to the EFCC office in Abuja on September 13. But she travelled to the UK at the time to attend the graduation ceremony of her son.
Following her refusal to honour the invitation, the EFCC then threatened to arrest her.
It was gathered that the governor’s wife, who was grilled over alleged illegal hijack of landed property worth billions of naira, was later granted an administrative bail.
Ganduje was said to have accompanied his wife to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, on Monday.
The governor and his wife returned to Kano on Tuesday morning.
The son, Abdulzeez, had dragged his mother to the EFCC over a property which he claimed the mother used her access to power to enrich herself.
Abdulazeez had reported to the anti-graft agency 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 N35 million as “facilitation commission.”
It was further learnt that Abdulazeez alleged that he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Hafsat.
But three months later, the property developer was said to have discovered that the plots of land he had paid the first family for had been allocated to other buyers. He then requested to be refunded.
However, the state government has denied the arrest of the governor’s wife by the EFCC, saying it was mere rumours being peddled by mischief makers.
A statement by the Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba expressed regrets that the content of the story could not be attributed to the purported arresting agency, the EFCC.
Garba said the governor’s wife was not arrested or detained.
After the governor’s wife was granted administrative bail by the EFCC on Monday, she attended women empowerment programme in Danbatta Local Government Area on Tuesday to dispel the report that she was arrested.
Since this latest corruption allegation against Kano’s first family was made by the governor’s son, analysts wonder how the governor can use another court action to sweep the allegation under the carpet.
