The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is investigating former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso for alleged N2.5 billion pension fraud.
According to our source, Kwankwaso was invited and questioned by EFCC investigators about the development.
A source in the anti-graft agency, aware of the case but with no authorization to speak, stated, “The commission invited Kwankwaso over the alleged N2.5 billion in Kano pension funds. We have grilled Kwankwaso over the matter, and he has provided some details to interrogators.”
Another source stated, “Former Kano governor Kwankwaso has been invited by the commission. He has been grilled, and we’re continuing with our investigation.”
When contacted about the development, the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, declined to comment.
Chronicle NG reported in March 2023 that the EFCC’s Abuja Zonal Command handed over property documents and 324 houses recovered for Kano State pensioners to them.
According to an EFCC spokesperson, the houses were handed up in response to a final forfeiture order issued by Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
He noted that the forfeiture was the outcome of the EFCC’s successful investigations into a N4.1 billion Pension Trust Fund paid by pensioners to buy residences, which were unjustly denied to them by two previous Kano State administrations.
Oyewale said, “The commission investigated a petition by Concerned Kano State Workers and Pensioners about the alleged misappropriation of pension funds in the state.
“Findings by the EFCC showed that the state government entered into a tripartite agreement with the Kano State Pension Trust Fund to build housing estates for an aggregate sum of N41bn, out of which the Pension Trust Fund was to contribute N4.1bn.
“However, the contribution of the pensioners was used to build the houses in three estates located in Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo city, Sheikh Nasiru Kabara (Amana) city, and Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu city, all in Kano State, and two former governors of the state fraudulently discounted and sold the houses to their cronies and associates, leaving the pension trustees with low budgets and uncompleted houses.
“Representatives of the Kano State Pension Board, Alhaji Hassan Muhammed Aminu, Kubra Ahmad Bichi, and Salisu Yakubu Abubakar, who received the documents on behalf of the workers and pensioners, expressed delight and joy with the EFCC for assisting them in recovering their houses.”
The EFCC investigation into Kwankwaso comes amid political tensions between the ruling New Nigeria People’s Party, which he leads in Kano, and the All Progressives Congress, led by the state’s immediate past governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.
Last Monday, the state assembly, loyal to Kwankwaso’s political godson and incumbent governor, Abba Yusuf, reversed Ganduje’s 2020 decision to divide Kano into five emirates.
Yusuf reinstated Lamido Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, whom Ganduje deposed as the Emir of Kano during his reign in 2020.
