The Kano State Government has filed a new fraud case against the state’s immediate past governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, his Commissioner for Local Government, Murtala Garo, and two other individuals.
According to the charge sheet, Garo, Lamin Sani, and Muhammad Takai were charged with criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, making false statements or returns, and criminal misappropriation.
The state accused them of mismanaging the 44 local governments’ statutory allocations, which were transferred from the Federation account to the State Joint Local Governments account.
They were also accused of diverting N57.4 billion through multiple personal accounts of local government cashiers, as well as other personal and cooperative accounts, according to the charge sheet.
The state authorities also accused them of converting the cash to dollars for personal gain.
The state further claimed that they purchased a service apartment on the Murtala Muhammad Way, a commercial apartment at Akoya Oxygen (x20868 Dubai) in Tigerwood, and plot 2201 Floor 22 Damac Height, Marsa Dubai Marina, a multibillion-naira hotel in Jabi, Abuja.
Others include filling stations on Gwarzo Road Kano and Eastern Bypass Kano.
According to the charge sheet, the state plans to summon 143 witnesses. No date has been set for the case.
On April 4, the Kano government filed a suit against Ganduje, his wife, Hafsat Umar, and six others before the Kano High Court. The six others include Ganduje’s son, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Abubakar Bawuro, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Ltd., Safari Textiles Ltd., and Lesage General Enterprises.
It was gathered that on July 16, in the charge sheet with case No. K/143c/24, the state government accused Ganduje and erstwhile commissioner for justice, Musa Lawan, were charged with criminal conspiracy and misappropriation.
The State government accused Ganduje and Lawan of abuse of office.
