By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, PCCAC, has claimed that it that it traced about N51.3 billion allegedly misappropriated by former governor Abdullahi Ganduje, current national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Chairman of the PCCAC, Muhuyi Magaji, disclosed this during an interview on Arise TV.
The Kano State government, led by Governor Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has filed charges against Ganduje over alleged misappropriation, dollar bribery and other offenses.
Magaji said the N51.3 billion traced to Ganduje were channelled to different local government accounts.
“They then met with local government staff to create false expenditure with a payment voucher and then diverted the money through a third party.
“We traced a lot of the diverted funds to various individual accounts at the single market and subsequently took the money in cash to the state government house with someone stationed with a counting machine.
“After that, they changed it to dollars and then took it to certain individuals. We have a bureau de change who will testify that money was sent to him and how it was changed to dollars.
“We have been able to trace over N51.3 billion based on confessional statements and how they were diverted. What we are tracking is well over N100 billion,” he said.
Continuing, Magaji disclosed that some government officials had confessed their role in the alleged diversion of funds.
He said, “About 200 people confessed to the Commission that they took this money and this money, that they asked us to write, we purchased a car for hospital, we purchased drugs. It’s all lies.
“We heard it and we didn’t even see the money. We only produced the premium. But the cashier confessed to the Commission that this money, we have taken it to so-and-so person and that person was invited by the Commission. He equally confessed that, yes, this person took it to so-and-so. So this is one. We established N51.3 billion.
“So as I’m talking to you now, we have a cogent and verifiable evidence that we are taking to court on this case.”
The APC national chairman was also accused of selling a company belonging to the state government to his family.
“A company belonging to Kano government was sold to a company that belonged to the first family and this first family. I mean the wife of the former governor is the secretary of that account and that company is a cotton ginnery that deals with the ginnery of cotton.
“We have cotton ginnery, we have cotton tannery. All the two companies were sold. But this particular one was sold to his family and under his hand, at the stupid price of, ridiculous price, forgive me, of N320 million. Instead of the value of the property, which was N2 billion.
“So you see, and even the said N320 million was not remitted. We were only able to trace.”
