Kano govt begins probe of alleged diversion of over N100bn LG funds by Ganduje administration

Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission has said investigation into alleged misappropriation of over N100bn local governments fund by the immediate past administration of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has commenced.

SOLACEBASE reports that the commission said it has traced how some of the money were transferred and to the end points, over a period of four years.

The commission Chairman, Barr. Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado disclosed this on Monday while receiving members of the Kano State open government partnership (OGP) who paid him a solidarity visit.

The anti graft boss said the fight against corruption is so challenging as it has eaten deep into the fabric of the society.

‘’It is funny when people say our anti-corruption war is a vendetta. A former commissioner was detained here a week ago with a court order over misappropriation of more than N1bn under the guise of road maintenance that was not carried out,’’ Muhuyi said.

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‘’Do you what, preliminary investigation of the case has revealed that some of the money was routed through Bureau Da Change operators in Kano and Abuja while another N3bn fraud was just discovered also with 3 bogus companies.’’

‘’It will surprise you to know that the N1bn mismanaged with the claim that it was spent on road maintenance, initially, the record shows that the work has been carried out while in actual fact nothing was done. But right now since they realized that we are investigating, they are presently working on some of the roads.’’

‘’Like it is well known , when you fight corruption , corruption fight back as those involve in the act mostly use the ill-gotten wealth embark on propaganda to discredit the fight engage and use frivolous litigations to slow down the wheel of progress and many more.’’

Muhuyi Magaji appreciated the Open Government Partnership members who have been at the fore front of the fight against corruption, assuring them to further strengthen collaborative efforts for good governance to thrive in the state.

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He expressed disappointment that after he was wrongly removed from office almost two years ago, the OGP that is a collaboration of the state government and civil society organisations suffered a lot of neglect and frustration from the government that failed to do its part of the activities to ensure good governance.

‘’The OGP vehicles were grounded and the office secretariat was in shamble. However, I have directed the refurbishment of the vehicles to enhance your activities and one of our offices in the town would be provided for you as your secretariat.’’

In a remark, Kano State OGP Co-Chair, Comrade Abdulrazaq Alkali said the visit was to show solidarity to Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado’s anti-corruption stand and to review the state action plan.

‘’Incidentally, the action plan was initiated for 2021 – 2023 but approval was not given until 2022  hence the need to review it so as to accommodate some of the policy of the present administration in the state.’’

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‘’Also we intend to look at how we can strengthen government representation in OGP to fast track the achievement of our set goals.’’

‘’We are also appealing to the anti- corruption Chairman, as head of the lead agency to encourage participation from the government side.’’

On his part, a member of the Kano State open government partnership, Dr. Abdulsalam Kani said the OGP is a multilateral initiative both at national and sub national level with six components that include, Fiscal transparency, anti-corruption, service delivery , access to information, justice and citizen engagement.