Group files suit compelling EFCC, ICPC to investigate Ganduje

A rights group, Enough is Enough, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja to compel the EFCC, ICPC and Nigeria Police to probe and investigate Governor Adbullahi Ganduje on all allegations bordering on corrupt practices.

The media director of the group, Tolulope Oladele, in a statement on Tuesday, said “We are committed to demanding that all who choose to serve and are elected into public office must be held accountable for their actions. The suit against Ganduje over corruption had first came up for hearing on May 10th and has been adjourned to May 24th”.

The group in the statement recalled that “On Sunday, October 14, 2018, video clips were released by Daily Nigeria (an online news platform) indicating the Executive Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, of receiving $5 million kickback from a government contractor. The allegation against the governor has since generated public outcry and controversy.

“In light of the aforementioned, the Kano State House of Assembly set up an investigative committee headed by Mr Baffa Babba Dan’agundi to probe the alleged bribery of Mr Ganduje”.

The statement continued that “A group, Lawyers for Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria, led by Muhammed Zubair, filed a lawsuit at the Kano State High Court compelling Kano State House of Assembly to halt the probe against Mr Ganduje.

The court ruled that it is not in the constitutional purview of the Kano State House of Assembly to investigate a bribery allegation against Mr Ganduje, saying it is the function of agencies under the executive arm of government such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Police Force”.

The statement, however, read that “As an institution that is interested in the nation building by promoting good governance, transparency and accountability, we wrote to the ICPC, EFCC, and the Nigeria Police on December 17, 2018, to investigate the bribery allegation against Mr Ganduje as the court of law suggested.

We followed up with a reminder letter on April 2, 2019. Sadly, the executive arm of government saddled with the responsibility of investigating criminal offenses has taken no action”, the statement concluded.

Recall that Kano State governor, Umar Ganduje, was revealed last year in a video published by Daily Nigerian, allegedly receiving what was described as bribe from a contractor.

In the series of videos, the governor was alleged to have received a total of $5 million in installments from a certain contractor on several occasions.

Since the videos surfaced, the governor dismissed it as a fabrication while the published, Ja’afar Ja’afar appeared before the Kano State House of Assembly to convince lawmakers of the authenticity of the videos.

But Governor Ganduje maintained his innocence, claiming that the videos were doctored by his political opponents to tarnish his reputation. He also threatened to sue Ja’afar for allegedly defaming his character.