Alleged Bribery: Kano CJ Reassigns Case Against Ganduje

The Chief Judge of Kano State, Justice Dije Abdul-Aboki, has transferred the criminal case against former Governor and national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, to a new judge.
Until this development, the case was before Kano High Court 4 presided over by Usman Na’abba.
The case has now been transferred to High Court 7, sitting at Miller Road and presided over by Amina Adamu-Aliyu.
The Tide’s source reports that Baba Jibo-Ibrahim, the court’s spokesperson, said the office of the CJ has the power to direct and transfer a case at any stage before judgment.
The Kano government filed an eight-count charge bordering on bribery allegations, misappropriation, and diversion of public funds against Dr Ganduje.
The former governor of Kano is to stand trial alongside his wife, Hafsat Umar; son, Umar Abdullahi Umar; and five others.
Other defendants in the case are Abubakar Bawuro, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General Enterprises Limited.
The defendants were scheduled for arraignment on April 17, but the prosecution failed to serve the charge on them.
On April 29, the judge fixed May 16 to rule on an application by the prosecution seeking substituted service.
In 2018, the Daily Nigerian, an online newspaper, published a video of Ganduje allegedly receiving bundles of dollars from contractors, which he stuffed into his “babanriga”, a traditional outfit.
The APC national chairman was the governor of Kano from 2015 to 2023.
The newspaper said Ganduje requested $5 million as a bribe from the contractors who recorded the video.
In 2023, the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) invited Dr Ganduje for questioning over the incident.
The former governor did not honour the invitation and instead instituted a suit against the agency.
In March, a federal high court in Kano stopped the agency from inviting or questioning Dr Ganduje over the bribery allegations.
The court ruled that the agency lacked the power to invite or investigate Dr Ganduje over the allegations.
The presiding judge, Abdullahi Liman, said the alleged infraction is a federal offence that cannot be prosecuted by the state anti-graft agency.