Kano State APC Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who was shown in a viral video around October that trended as #Gandudollars allegedly collecting hundreds of thousands of US dollars in bribes, has turned around to probe his predecessor in office, Sen. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of PDP, over 5Km road projects in Kano State.
Ganduje dropped the hint Wednesday 09 January while inaugurating a 12-member campaign committees for his second term bid at Kano State government House, Kano.
The governor said the matter has since been reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and that they are nearing completion of their investigations.
Ganduje, who was Kwankwaso’s deputy from 2011-2015, accused his former boss of diverting money meant for the construction of 5Km roads in the 44 local governments of Kano state to fund his Kwankwaso’s presidential campaign back in 2015.
He said, “I was the deputy governor when the project was conceived. Ninety per cent of the total sum of the contract was provided by the 44 local governments while the remaining 10 per cent was provided by the state government.
“However, Kwankwaso collected the 90 per cent from the 44 local government, paid the mobilisation fee and funded his presidential campaign with the remaining balance. The Kwankwasiyya people have started campaigning with the 5km road project but I will expose them,” Ganduje said.
Ganduje and Kwankwaso has been bitter rivals for the control of Kano politics deepened since the defection of Kwankwaso from the ruling APC to main opposition PDP.
Kano State, with its second largest voting population in the 2019 general elections, according to the latest figures released by INEC, is a battleground State as both parties fight for a big chunk of the votes in the State.
Rabiu Kwankwaso heads the popular Kwankwasiya movement and his potential probe at this time could be aimed at weakening his movement’s capacity to mount strong support for the opposition PDP in the elections.
Abdulsalam, who is the PDP deputy gubernatorial candidate to Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf, said the said contract if anything was conceived and awarded from the office of Ganduje’s as the deputy governor and commissioner for local government then.
“Let him tell the public how the contract was awarded, what happened to it and who the contractors are. The 5km road project was not the case investigated by the EFCC and is not Ganduje that took the case to EFCC. The EFCC has finished that case,” he said.
Reacting to the absurd situation, Director of policy and strategy in the PDP Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization, Osita Chidoka, said the APC was “elevating shamelessness to a national philosophy” as one of “its major contribution to our national development”.
Renowned political critic, Reno Omokri, comparing the saga to Anini – the notorious 1980’s robber in Benin city, saying, “Only in Buhari’s Nigeria will Anini accuse another person of being a thief”.
Another social media user CallMebigg reacted as follows:
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