THE National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has been suspended by the party leaders in his ward at the Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of the state.
The party’s legal adviser at the ward, Halliru Gwanzo, made this known while addressing journalists in the state on Monday, April 14.
Gwanzo cited the state government’s allegations of bribery against Ganduje as the grounds for his suspension.
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“We decided to suspend Dr. Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him,” Gwanzo said.
The ICIR reports that Ganduje, the immediate past governor of the state, is set to face charges in court on Wednesday, April 17, regarding allegations of bribery, diversion, and misappropriation of funds, which include diversion of funds, criminal conspiracy, misappropriation, and criminal breach of trust.
State APC suspends Ganduje’s ward committee leaders
In a swift response, the state APC Working Committee has taken drastic actions against party leaders who suspended Ganduje.
On Monday, the APC Dawakin Tofa Local Government Chairman, Inusa Dawanau, told reporters that those responsible for suspending the national chairman engaged in anti-party activities.
He claimed there was evidence of their meetings with the opposition party in the state.
Dawanau announced a six-month suspension on the ward leaders, adding that a special investigations panel had been constituted to probe allegations against them.
Reacting to the development, the Kano APC Chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, said the state APC adopted the party’s Local Government’s decisions.
“We have evidence of meetings between the state government officials and those that suspended the National Chairman. The state working committee has agreed to sanction them for six months and they stand now suspended,” he stated.
State allegations against Ganduje
The State Government had dragged Ganduje, his wife, Hafsat Umar, and five others to court over eight corruption charges, amounting to billions of naira during his eight years in government.
The charges were contained in a charge sheet dated 3rd April, which also attached a list of 15 prosecution witnesses.
According to the lawsuit, the other respondents are Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Ltd, Safari Textiles Ltd, and Lesage General Enterprises.
The lead charge reads, “That you, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, sometime between the period of January 10th, 2016 or thereabout at Kano, in the Kano Judicial Division, while serving as the Governor of Kano State and being a public servant in the government of Kano State corruptly asked for and received the sum of $ 200,000, being benefit for yourself from one of the beneficiaries of contracts awarded by the Kano State Government on your instruction and approval as part of your function as the Governor of Kano State thereby committed the offence of official corruption contrary to and punishable under Section 22 of The Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission Law 2008 (as amended), Law N02 of 2009, Laws of Kano State of Nigeria.”
Other charges bordered on diversion of funds, criminal conspiracy, and loss of government’s properties, among others.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M