Abba Kabir Yusuf, the governor of Kano state, has said that his administration will list the names of people who fraudulently received land allocations for public facilities including schools and hospitals.
This was said by him on Monday night in response to queries from newsmen regarding the ongoing demolition frenzy in Kano.
The governor expressed concern at the regrettable way in which persons in positions of responsibility acquire school properties that are still to be developed and distribute them to families and friends at the expense of the general public.
According to him, these properties should have been used to expand the institutions by constructing dormitories, laboratories, and student sports facilities.
"It is terrible that the previous administration divided up school lands and gave them to members of their own family.
"These are public lands that should be used for the benefit of the government and the broader public.
"Instead of constructing laboratories, dorms, and sports facilities for the benefit of students, they took over property belonging to an institution, including a laboratory, and demolished everything before allocating it to themselves.
We have a list of the individuals who received the allotment of lands owned by the schools and places of worship so that everyone is aware.
He stated, "We are doing this in the interest of the public and to deter the same act in the future.
Background
In the hamlet of Ganduje, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, Ganduje was born in 1949 to a Fulani family. He received his early education in his village's Qur'anic and Islamiyya school, where he received instruction in Islamic studies. Later, he relocated to the local government's administrative center, where from 1956 to 1963, he attended Dawakin Tofa Primary School. From 1964 to 1968, Ganduje attended the esteemed Government College, Birnin Kudu.
Between and, Ganduje studied at the Advanced Teachers' College in Kano. 1969 and 1972. He continued his education at Ahmadu Bello University, which is situated in Zaria, Kaduna State, and earned his Bachelor of Science in Education there in 1975. He graduated from Bayero University Kano in 1979 with a master's degree in applied educational psychology. Later, from 1984 to 1985, Ganduje went back to Ahmadu Bello University to earn a Master of Public Administration degree. The University of Ibadan awarded him a PhD in public administration in 1993.
first political office
During the Second Nigerian Republic, Ganduje joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). From 1979 to 1980, he was the assistant secretary for Kano State. In 1979, he ran for the House of Representatives under the NPN, but he was unsuccessful. He held numerous government roles in the between 1984 and 1994, including In 1994, he was appointed Kano State Commissioner of the Ministry of Works, Housing, and Transportation. He also served on the Federal Capital Development Authority.
He joined the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 and attempted to run for governor in the party's primary under the supervision of Tony Momoh, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Senator Bala Tafidan Yauri, among others; nevertheless, he was defeated by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Later, between 1999 and 2003, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso chose Ganduje to be his deputy. He was chosen for the position of Commissioner for Local Government in addition to the deputy governorship[ He worked as the Special Adviser (Political) to the Minister of Defense from 2003 to 2007. In Ndjamena, Ganduje also held the position of executive secretary for the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
In charge of Kano State
He was chosen as the All Progressives Congress' (APC) unanimous choice for governor of Kano State in 2014. In the 2015 governorship election, he went on to defeat Malam Salihu Takai, a candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by receiving 1,546,434 votes to Takai's 509,726. On May 29, 2015, he took office as Kano State's governor, succeeding his political role model Rabiu Kwankwaso. Ganduje and Kwankwaso had a falling out during his first term because Kwankwaso was accused of godfatherism. Conflicts with Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, whom he looked into for financial irresponsibility, also marked his term. In a contentious election tainted by electoral fraud, he defeated Kwankwaso's son-in-law Abba Kabir Yusuf to win re-election in 2019 for a second term.
Next year, Governor Four new emirates were established by a bill that Abdullahi Umar Ganduje signed. The traditional emiral territory of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II was diminished as a result of this exceptional action. The Kano emir's jurisdiction was once all 44 Kano State LGAs, but under the new law, he would only rule over 10 of the state's 44 local government areas. Following a high court decision halting the corruption probe against Sanusi, the state legislature opened a new investigation into his alleged violations of customary norms in March 2020. Emir Sanusi was removed from office and banished by Ganduje on March 9, 2020, for allegedly showing "insubordination and disrespect to legal instructions from the office of the Governor."
Videos of Corruption and Bribery from October 2018 released by the online publication Daily Nigerian, which claimed to have been captured on a surveillance camera, show the governor accepting stacks of dollar bills that look to be bribe payments from contractors. The governor, through his commissioner for information, refuted the accusations, asserted the journalist who released the video footage was blackmailed, and threatened legal action against the publisher of Daily Nigerian.
Ganduje sued Daily Nigerian editor Jaafar Jaafar in November 2018 for alleged defamation related to the distribution of the bribery footage. Sources claim that Ganduje attempted to withdraw the case on June 30, 2021, and that he plans to refile at a later time. However, on July 6, Muhammad Dan'Azumi, the Daily Nigerian's attorney, filed a counterclaim alleging The court's time was wasted and Ganduje's lawsuit was without merit. The following day, Justice S. B. Namalam approved Ganduje's motion to withdraw but stipulated that he must pay Jaafar and the Daily Nigerian each 400,000. Jaafar claimed in August 2021 that Ganduje had not made the $800,000 payment or gotten in touch with his attorneys to make the arrangements.[
Ganduje sued Jaafar and Daily Nigerian for slander once more on July 15, 2021. Jaafar had previously countersued for $300,000.
publisher is under threat
In an interview with BBC Hausa on March 19, 2021, Ganduje repeated his allegation that the tapes had been altered and stated that he had plans to 'deal with' the reporters who had released the videos. Jaafar Jaafar wrote a letter to the Inspector General of Police on March 22, 2021. Mohammed Adamu claims that Ganduje should be held accountable if anything happens to him because the interview amounted to a threat. The letter also called for a probe into Ganduje and restated assertions that Jaafar had been declared de facto "persona non grata" in Kano State and that he has been in grave danger ever since the videos were made public. Mohammed Garba, the commissioner of information for Kano State, defended Ganduje by saying that the comments about "dealing with" them were in connection to the pending defamation case.
Jaafar left his Abuja home the next month after receiving death threats and being pursued by unknown persons (he had stopped permanently residing in Kano in 2018); police later searched the Daily Nigerian offices for Jaafar. Officers provided workers with Jaafar was sent a letter calling him in to be questioned about alleged "criminal conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood, and inciting violence."Jaafar continued to hide and, in May, moved to the UK with his family out of fear for his life. In his statement, he stated that he would continue to live abroad "until this regime can guarantee my safety and protect freedom of the press."
Efforts to get an anti-corruption official dismissed
Later in June 2021, the Daily Nigerian claimed that Ganduje had put pressure on the Kano State House of Assembly to oust Muhuyi MagaJi Rimingado from his post as the head of the PCACC. Since the 2018 bribery incident, Rimingado had been compelled by the public to look into Ganduje. Earlier in June, he had asked for information on building of the Kano Cancer Center and diesel purchases by the state government. Construction of the Cancer Center was allegedly overseen by a family member of the Gandujes, whereas the family members directly oversaw the purchase of government fuel. Ganduje campaigned for Rimingado's dismissal throughout the month of June 2021 as he started investigating the contracts, nature, and construction of the Cancer Center and diesel purchase.
Beginning in early July 2021, the Kano State House of Assembly placed Rimingado on administrative leave for one month due to "the rejection of an accountant deployed from the office of the State Accountant General to the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission." Uba Abdullahi, a spokesman for the House, asserted that the state House of Assembly received a petition from the office of the Accountant General.
requested assistance, and Majority Leader Labaran Abdul Madari created a committee for investigation. Later, Ganduje named Mahmoud Balarabe, Director for Public Prosecution in the Kano State Ministry of Justice, as the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission's acting Chairperson.
Justice Sanusi Ado-Ma'aji granted a motion made by Rimingado to stop the House of Assembly's probe on July 24, 2021. For additional hearings, Ado-Ma'aji postponed the case until August 6. Despite the decision, the House of Assembly's investigating committee published its findings on July 27 with the assertion that Rimingado had acted inappropriately in declining the position of the Accountant General's accountant and had pretended to be ill in order to avoid testifying. The committee then recommended that Rimingado be terminated from his employment, detained, and charged.
that Isah Yusif, the PCACC's accountant, start working there and that a new committee be formed in the House to investigate the PCACC's financial situation under Rimingado.Later that day, Rimingado was seized by the Kano State Police Command for questioning over alleged forgery and false statement.