Hafsat Ganduje, the wife of the executive governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, is in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, custody for fraud allegations.
It was gathered that the First Lady of Kano was allegedly arrested on Monday over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son, Abdualzeez Ganduje.
She had been invited by the anti-graft agency to report to Abuja headquarters on September 13. However, she did not honour the invitation, which prompted the EFCC to arrest her.
Sources close to her revealed that she had travelled to the UK at the time, for the graduation of her son.
According to a report by Premium Times, she was apprehended on Monday evening by the EFCC. She is currently being questioned by investigators.
Governor Ganduje’s son, Abdulazeez had earlier reported his mother to the anti-graft agency, alleging that she had been using the family’s influence for personal gain.
Mr Ganduje, the governor, had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. He has struggled to untangle himself from the public perception that he is a corrupt public servant since 2018 when Daily Nigerian published a series of videos that showed the governor collecting money from a government contractor.
According to sources who saw Abdulazeez’s petition, he reported that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million naira as “facilitation commission”.
It was leant that Abdulazeez said he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs Ganduje.
“But three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he wanted and had paid the first family for had been allocated to other buyers and he then requested to be refunded,” one source added.
