A FEDERAL High Court in Kano State has ruled that the state anti-corruption agency – Kano Public Compliant and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) – lacked the power to investigate former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje over a dollar bribery video.
The court presided over by Abdulahi Liman, stated on Tuesday, March 5, that the offence was a federal one that only the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could prefer charges against Ganduje.
Liman emphasised that there were limitations to the Kano anti-graft agency’s power to probe the former governor.
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However, the anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Usman Umar Fari, told reporters after the ruling that the organisation would appeal the decision at the Court of Appeal.
The ICIR reported in July 2023 that PCACC summoned Ganduje, currently the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for interrogation over the controversial dollar bribery video.
The commission’s chairman, Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado, had on Wednesday, June 5, 2023, declared that contrary to Ganduje’s claims, the video was not doctored as claimed by Ganduje.
Rimingado spoke at a ‘One Day Public Dialogue on Anti-Corruption Crusade’ in Kano.
In a video that went viral in 2017, Ganduje was seen receiving bundles of dollar notes offered as bribe from a contractor and stuffing them in his dress.
Rimingado claimed that since the video’s release, he had come under pressure from all sides to establish the governor’s guilt or innocence.
He explained that because Ganduje was immune from prosecution during his time in office, it had been hard to establish his guilt or innocence since the committee started looking into the issue in 2018.
Speaking on Channels TV’s Lunchtime Politics on Thursday, July 6, 2023, Rimingado disclosed that the panel had sent a letter of invitation to the former governor, inviting him to come before it and provide any information necessary for the current investigation.
The Daily Nigerian online newspaper publisher, Jafar Jafar, who leaked the video, insisted that the footage published by the paper was authentic and not manipulated.
Jafar explained that the video was captured by his friend who was a contractor with the Kano State government and who had complained that Ganduje received kickbacks, ranging from 15 to 25 per cent for every project executed in the state.
He said this during an investigative hearing into the allegations by the Kano State House of Assembly in 2018.
After the video was released, the Kano State government said Ganduje never collected bribes from contractors.
The government also described the video as “cloned”, adding that the governor would explore every legal means in seeking redress.
A few days after the publication of the video clip, Ganduje told reporters that he was not worried about the impact the video might have on him and that he was innocent of the accusations.
Despite the viral video showing Ganduje allegedly receiving a bribe from a contractor, a court in December 2019 dismissed a suit by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking to investigate the governor.
The Federal High Court sitting in Kano dismissed the suit filed by a lawyer, Bulama Bukarti, who sought an order from the court to direct the EFCC to investigate the former governor.
The court ruled that the EFCC did not have a record of the forensic analysis of the bribery allegations.
Again, recently, Ganduje asked the Kano State High Court to stop the EFCC from investigating him in connection with the video.
A reporter with the ICIR
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