The war of words between Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, and the immediate past administration led by Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, took fresh dimension on Sunday as the former challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release the report on indicting Ganduje’s dollar video.
” We therefore requested the release of the forensic investigation conducted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFFC) on “Gandollar saga” in 2018, for public consumption”. Gov. Yusuf tells EFCC.
Besides, Governor Yusuf also made mockery of Ganduje over allegation of failure of the present administration in the state.
In return, Governor Yusuf insisted that Ganduje’s should rather be ashamed of his eight-year tenure which depicted mass failure and maladministration, owing to a large scale of corruption, diversion of public funds and sale of government properties.
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Governor Yusuf, in a Statement issued by his spokesperson, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, and made available to journalists on Sunday, regretted that Ganduje shamelessly spoke about non-existent failure in the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) government, instead of facing the nemesis of corruption and political violence hanging around his neck.
Governor Yusuf insisted that Ganduje presided over two unproductive tenures characterised with siphoning public resources, inability to cater for the needs of Kano’s population, nepotism and bloodshed that left many families the mood of melancholy.
“Our eight months in office has remarkably outweighed Ganduje’s eight wasted years of political caricature and maladministration by all standards,” Governor Yusuf stated.
He advised the acting National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) and the immediate-past Governor of the state, Abdullah Umar Ganduje to rather buckle up in defence of his battered image at the court, instead of further exposing his impunity on the media space.
Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa was quoted in the statement, reminding Ganduje how his gross penchant for corruption has brought shame and disgrace to the good people of Kano, insisting that no amount of media campaign would hinder the process of bringing him (Ganduje) to book on the glaring cases of corruption filed against him.
The statement further regretted that Ganduje could yet muster the courage to defend himself in the media, despite the embarrassing video clip where he was caught, red-handed, stocking his large agbada pockets with dollars, a supposed kickback from a contractor; and other corrupt practices massively associated with his eight-year tenure during which he ran the affairs of Kano state as a family enterprise.
“We wish to reaffirm the present administration’s resolve and readiness to make Ganduje and his co-travellers face the full wrath of the law for thier intentional wrong doings,” the statement added.
Governor Yusuf, however, maintained that “Ganduje’s administration is multifacetedly inclined, prioritizing focus and attention on socio-economic and physical infrastructure developments for the overall well-being of Kano and the good people of Kano state.
“For anyone to assume that efforts to unravel the issue of corruption charges against Ganduje and members of his immediate family is an attempt to cover up, clearly means, such category of people are either under false illusion or being economical with the truth.
“For whatever option, Kano state government would advise the acting national chairman of APC to show cause why his name, that of his family, and the entire people of Kano should permanently erase from the global embarrassment that the dollar video has generated.
“The administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf emphasized that it would leave no stone unturned to pursuing the dollar video scandal to logical conclusion” The statement reads.
On the allegations of poor governance in Kano despite the increase in federal allocation, Governor Yusuf revealed that his administration is still struggling to recover from state of bankruptcy Ganduje plunged the state in the last eight years.
“Apart from inheriting liability and debt running into over N500 billion from Ganduje’s administration occasioned by his reckless financial misconduct, the immediate past APC government sold almost all the property and assets to the members of his family, and his cronies.
” It is also glaring that Ganduje’s administration was associated with massive corruption, nepotism and intimidation of innocent citizens of Kano state, hence the reason for setting up two Judicial Commission of Inquiry”
Governor Yusuf added “that for someone to believe the lies that our administration is a failure for justifying the huge resources in less than a year, means that the person has never been to Kano to see things for himself, or the person is a member of the opposition party who simply want to malign our administration.
” The NNPP government in Kano has recorded life-changing initiatives to the good people of Kano state, part of which include the foreign post-graduate scholarship for first class students, payment of tuition fees and entrance examinations for hundreds of thousands of university and secondary schools students, free maternal and child healthcare, renovations and equipping of some secondary healthcare facilities, among many other modset achievments that have impacted positively on the lives of Kano people.
“Additionally, we have taken a bold step in paying the backlog of pension gratuity for the state pensioners who were denied their entitlements by Ganduje’s administration in the last eight years. We completed the abandoned five kilometre roads in some Local Government Areas.
” We also distributed four batches of palliatives to hundred of thousands of Kano residents to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal and increase in price of food stuff.
“Kano residents still remembered how Ganduje’s administration kept food items meant to be distributed to the masses during Covid-19, under the sun and in the rain until they completely spoiled while other items were only brought out for distribution during 2023 elections, after greater percentage of the items were diverted and sold by his foot-soldiers”.
While inagurating the JCI, Governor Yusuf said the first commission is to investigate issues related to misappropriation of public properties and assets while the second will investigate the cases of political violence and missing persons in the state.
He wondered why Ganduje has started being jittery of the constitution of the commissions even when he has not been invited yet, to answer for his misdeeds.
According to the statement, the Governor is on the verge of restoring sanity from the spate of political thuggery which the immediate-past administration promoted; and disruption of election processes in both 2019 and 2023 when unsuspecting and hepless Kano people were maimed, injured, dehumanized, brutalized and killed by thugs loyal to the APC and Ganduje.
“We wish to warn Ganduje to stop dragging the name of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu into his corruption saga, as we believe that our able and well respected President does not interfere into cases before the courts of competent jurisdiction, as we witnessed during our trying times at the Supreme Court when he allowed justice to prevail for the opposition parties,” Sanusi Bature added in the statement.