Côrruption Everywhére, As Kano Anti Graft Agéncy Séek To Unmäsk Thosé Béhind Fleécing Of Empôwerment  Béneficiaries

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Kano State anti graft Commission has said that a full scale investigation into allegations of corruption against officials assigned the task of disbursing the state Government’s palliative measure to street hawkers has been launched.

The Source reports that on Friday June 7, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, had in bid to take the hawkers of the streets and improve their wellbeing announced an empowerment package of  N50,000 each for about 465 street hawkers .

But a video clip widely in circulation has since unearthed a cesspool of corrupt activities by the disbursing  officials who are alleged to be coercing some of the beneficiaries to forfeit nearly 80% of the sum.

One of the beneficiaries in the video, stated that disbursing officials cornered them in batches ,cajoling and coercing them to forfeit N45 ,000 out of the donated N50,000.

“We are 100 in our batch that were cornered by the officials under a strict watch of their “boys” to comply in our own interest” Nura Isa one of the beneficiaries stated in the video.

In other cases of alleged under hand dealings disbursing officials were accused of denying some of the beneficiaries access to the disbursement venue,while lining up their cronies in place of the actual beneficiaries.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Muhuyi Magaji Rimin-Gado warned that the anti corruption agency will not spare any one found culpable in the alleged fleecing of the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme ,no matter how highly placed..

The Chairman of the Kano State anti-corruption commission ,further insisted that, they will not allow some unscrupulous characters to undermine the integrity of the Government.

Meanwhile, Governor Yusuf has stated that for the timely intervention of his administration in offsetting about a N1.3 billion debt the states candidates in last year’s NECO and NBAIS examinations would not have accessed their results.

In a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Sanusi Bature, on Sunday, Governor Yusuf informed that the failure of the immediate past regime to pay N1.3 billion NECO and NBAIS fees grossly affected the education growth of thousands of kano students.

“Last year when Governor Yusuf took over  ,he discovered with nostalgia that students who sat for the NBAIS Examination from 2021-2023 could not access their results because of the failure of the previous administration to pay the relevant agency what was due to them.

“The administration met a backlog of liabilities of examination fees to the tune of N1.3 billion which have been paid and got Kano state students registered for NECO and NBAIS.

“In the year 2024, the State Government has approved for the payments of NECO and NBAIS registration fees to the tune of over N2.9 billion for 121,597 students that have credits in their qualifying examinations in public schools” the statement noted.