TheCable

A federal high court in Kano has stopped the Kano state Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) from inviting or investigating Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over bribery allegations.

The court ruled that the agency lacks the power to invite or investigate Ganduje over the allegations.

Delivering judgment in the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the former Kano governor, Abdullahi Liman, the presiding judge, said the alleged infraction is a federal offence that cannot be prosecuted by the state anti-graft agency.

Liman said the bribery allegation ought to have been investigated by a federal agency like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

After the judgment, Usman Fari, counsel to the PCACC, said he had gotten the approval of his client to appeal the verdict.

Matthew Burkaa, counsel to Ganduje, praised the court for the ruling adding that the verdict is the correct position of the law.

In 2018, 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 newspaper said the former governor requested $5 million as a bribe from the contractors who recorded the video.

PCACC had invited Ganduje for questioning in July 2023 but the former governor instituted a suit challenging the agency.

Earlier in June 2023,  Ganduje also approached a high court in the state to perpetually restrain the EFCC from inviting or investigating him over the matter.