By Akinwale Kasali
Hafsat Ganduje, wife of Kano State Governor, Umar Abdullahi Ganduje is in troubled waters. She was taken-in by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday.
Interestingly, the Kano First Lady was arrested by the anti-graft agency following a report of bribery and land fraud made against her by her own son, Abdulazeez Ganduje.
The arrest of Ganduje’s wife by the EFCC was due to her failure to honour the invitation extended to her by the Commission, forcing the anti graft agency to effect her arrest.
On 13th September 2021, the Media had reported the invite of Ganduje’s wife by the EFCC. But she allegedly shunned the invite and travelled to United Kingdom to attend the graduation ceremony of another of her sons.
One of the alleged allegations was that Mrs Ganduje had used the influence of the political power of the family to corruptly acquire private enrichment.
Abdulazeez dragged his mum to the EFCC in a petition where he stated that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million Naira as “facilitation commission”. Abdulazeez claimed that he paid the sum in dollars to his mother.
However, three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he had paid for had been allocated to other buyers. And he, then, requested to be refunded.
The failure of Mrs Ganduje to refund the money led to the issue of arrest by the EFCC.
It would be recalled that the Ganduje family had been engulfed in bribery scandal in the past.
Governor Ganduje was alleged to have been bribed by a contractor in Dollars which was recorded. It went viral, tagged, ‘Gandollar scandals’, and earned him an alias, “Gandollar”.
As at the time of filing this report, it was not confirmed if was still cooling off in the EFCC net or been released.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that his son who reported her had since left Nigeria for, allegedly, Dubai with his wife and children. It is not known if the EFCC will also go after him since he was the go-between in the alleged scandal.
