…Urges EFCC to release forensic report on Ganduje’s dollar saga
Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has replied to his predecessor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, over his claims of failure in governance in the current administration, insisting that Ganduje’s eight-year tenure represented failure and maladministration, following massive records of corruption, diversion of public funds, and sale of government properties that characterised it.
Governor Yusuf, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, and made available to journalists on Sunday, regretted that Ganduje shamelessly spoke about non-existent failure in the New Nigeria Peoples. Party (NNPP) government instead of facing the nemesis of corruption and political violence hanging around his neck.
Governor Yusuf insisted that Ganduje presided over two unproductive tenures characterised by syphoning public resources, the inability to cater for the needs of Kano’s population, nepotism, and bloodshed that left many families in a melancholy mood.
READ ALSO: How ex-gov Ganduje allegedly sold Kano cotton factory, pocketed proceeds – Report
“Our eight months in office have remarkably outweighed Ganduje’s eight wasted years of political caricature and maladministration by all standards,” Governor Yusuf stated.
He advised the acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the immediate-past Governor of the state, Abdullah Umar Ganduje, to rather buckle up in defence of his battered image at the court, instead of further exposing his impunity in the media.
Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa was quoted in the statement, reminding Ganduje how his gross penchant for corruption has brought shame and disgrace to the good people of Kano, insisting that no amount of media campaign would hinder the process of bringing him (Ganduje) to book on the glaring cases of corruption filed against him.
The statement further regretted that Ganduje could yet muster the courage to defend himself in the media, despite the embarrassing video clip where he was caught, red-handed, stocking his large agbada pockets with dollars, a supposed kickback from a contractor; and other corrupt practices massively associated with his eight-year tenure during which he ran the affairs of Kano state as a family enterprise.
“We wish to reaffirm the present administration’s resolve and readiness to make Ganduje and his co-travellers face the full wrath of the law for thier intentional wrongdoing,” the statement added.
Governor Yusuf, however, maintained that his administration is multifacetedly inclined, prioritising focus and attention on socio-economic and physical infrastructure developments for the overall well-being of Kano and the good people of Kano State.
Governor Yusuf believes that for anyone to assume that efforts to unravel the issue of corruption charges against Ganduje and members of his immediate family are an attempt to cover up, clearly means, such a category of people are either under false illusion or being economical with the truth.
For whatever option, 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 erase from the global embarrassment that the dollar video has generated.
The administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf emphasized that it would leave no stone unturned to pursuing the dollar video scandal to logical conclusion. He therefore requested the release of the forensic investigation conducted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFFC) on “Gandollar saga” in 2018, for public consumption.
On the allegations of poor governance in Kano despite the increase in federal allocation, Governor Yusuf revealed that his administration is still struggling to recover from state of bankruptcy Ganduje plunged the state in the last eight years.
Apart from inheriting liability and debt running into over N500 billion from Ganduje’s administration occasioned by his reckless financial misconduct, Governor Yusuf said the immediate past APC government sold almost all the property and assets to Ganduje, members of his family, and his cronies.
He further stated that it is also glaring that Ganduje’s administration was associated with massive corruption, nepotism and intimidation of innocent citizens of Kano state, hence the reason for setting up two Judicial Commission of Inquiry”
Governor Yusuf added that for someone to believe the lies that our administration is a failure for justifying the huge resources in less than a year, means that the person has never been to Kano to see things for himself, or the person is a member of the opposition party who simply want to malign our administration.
Governor Yusuf revealed that the NNPP government in Kano recorded life-changing initiatives to the good people of Kano state, part of which include the foreign post-graduate scholarship for first class students, payment of tuition fees and entrance examinations for hundreds of thousands of university and secondary schools students, free maternal and child healthcare, renovations and equipping of some secondary healthcare facilities, among many other modset achievments that have impacted positively on the lives of Kano people.
Additionally, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has taken a bold step in paying the backlog of pension gratuity for the state pensioners who were denied their entitlements by Ganduje’s administration in the last eight years. We completed the abandoned five kilometre roads in some Local Government Areas.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has also distributed four batches of palliatives to hundreds of thousands of Kano residents to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal and the increase in the price of food. Kano residents still remembered how Ganduje’s administration kept food items meant to be distributed to the masses during COVID-19 under the sun and in the rain until they completely spoiled, while other items were only brought out for distribution during 2023 elections, after greater percentage of the items were diverted and sold by his foot-soldiers.
While inaugurating the JCI, Governor Yusuf said the first commission is to investigate issues related to misappropriation of public properties and assets, while the second will investigate cases of political violence and missing persons in the state. He wondered why Ganduje has started being jittery about the constitution of the commissions even though he has not been invited yet, to answer for his misdeeds.
According to the statement, the governor is on the verge of restoring sanity from the spate of political thuggery that the immediate past administration promoted and the disruption of election processes in both 2019 and 2023, when unsuspecting and hapless Kano people were maimed, injured, dehumanised, brutalised, and killed by thugs loyal to the APC and Ganduje.
“We wish to warn Ganduje to stop dragging the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu into his corruption saga, as we believe that our able and well respected President does not interfere in cases before the courts of competent jurisdiction, as we witnessed during our trying times at the Supreme Court when he allowed justice to prevail for the opposition parties,” Sanusi Bature added in the statement.
