TheCable

A Kano state high court has fixed April 17 to arraign Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over criminal charges.

In a court summon issued on Monday, the former governor of Kano is to be arraigned alongside his wife and son.

The other defendants in the case are Abubakar Bawuro, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lesaga General Enterprises.

In a charge sheet seen by TheCable, the state government said the offence contravened Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Commission Commission Law 2008.

BACKGROUND

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 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 Ganduje for questioning over the incident in the video.

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 Ganduje over the bribery allegations.

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

Abdullahi Liman, the presiding judge, said the alleged infraction is a federal offence that cannot be prosecuted by the state anti-graft agency.