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An High Court sitting in Kano state has fixed April 17 for the arraignment of the immediate-past Kano State governor and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, on bribery charges.
According to the Judicial (N.N) Form 2 Ganduje is to be arraigned at 9 am before Justice Usman Na’aba, sitting in Courtroom 4.
He will be arraigned alongside his wife, Hafsat, son, Umar and five others on eight counts, bordering on $413,000 and N1.38bn bribery.
The Kano State Government said it had assembled 15 witnesses to testify against them.
Also listed as defendants were Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Ltd, Safari Textiles Ltd and Lesage General Enterprises.
Governor Abba Yusuf had on assumption of office accused Ganduje of misappropriating public funds and allocating plots of land to some members of his immediate family.
On Monday, the state governor, Abba Yusuf, urged the EFCC to release the result of its probe into the alleged dollar bribery video involving Ganduje.
Yusuf, in a statement by his spokesperson, Sanusi Tofa, asked Ganduje to prepare to face his trial instead of talking about non-existent failure in the current administration.
Senior Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment, Chief Oliver Okpala to Ganjude, responding to the court order described the move by the Kano government as an after-thought, insisting that the matter was in the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
He said, “I am surprised at the said charge, which is coming like an afterthought. However, I am aware that the Federal High Court sitting in Kano recently gave judgment on the same issue, where it gave exclusive reserve to federal agencies to prosecute such matters after investigation, if there is prima facie evidence of committing the offences alleged.
“I will simply urge those concerned to refer to the said judgment of the Federal High Court and take a cue from it so as to be well guided, in their attempt to prosecute, so that public funds will not be dissipated without achieving any success; more so to avoid what will be termed an abuse of court process.”
