Court gives EFCC go-ahead to prosecute Ganduje's wife over her roll in $5m bribery scandal

KANO State's Governor Abdullahi Ganduje could soon face trial over corruption allegations against him as an Abuja federal high court okayed the accelerated hearing of a suit seeking to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute his wife.

In October last year, the Kano State House of Assembly set up a seven-man ad hoc committee to investigate the authenticity of a video clip in which Governor Ganduje was seen receiving the bribe. Now widely available, the video, originally published by online media platform Daily Nigerian, shows the governor receiving wads of dollars from a man said to be a contractor and stuffing them into his clothing.

Under pressure to investigate the claims, the EFCC has said, however, that it cannot act because Governor Ganduje still enjoys constitutional immunity from arrest and prosecution. Governor Ganduje had meanwhile secured a court injunction preventing the Kano State House of Assembly from carrying out further investigations against him.

Today, however, a high court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory has given its accent to the accelerated hearing of a suit compelling the EFCC, to arrest and prosecute Dr Hafsatu Abdullahi Ganduje, over alleged role she played in a $5m bribery scandal involving her husband. In a ruling by Justice Yusuf Halilu, the court further ordered the EFCC, the Kano State government and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who were listed as first, second and third defendants, to show cause why all assets owned by and or traceable to Governor Ganduje and his wife, should not be temporarily forfeited, pending the hearing and disposal of a suit that was lodged before it by a non-governmental organisation.

Likewise, the court ordered the APC, through its national working committee, to equally show cause why it should not be directed to immediately remove and substitute governor Ganduje’s name as its candidate for the 2019 general election in Kano State.  These orders followed a suit filed by an NGO known as the Incorporated Trustees of Hope Development and Empowerment Foundation.

They had asked the court to order the EFCC to temporarily seize all assets traceable to Governor Ganduje and his wife, pending the determination of the suit. However, Justice Halilu declined the request, even as he directed service of all the processes on the defendants to enable them to appear before the court on January 31 to show cause why the orders should not be made.

In a supporting affidavit that was deposed to by Martin Okoye, the group drew the attention of the court to what it described as a scandalous video it said showed Governor Ganduje as pocketing vast wads of US dollars in what was said to be bribe payments from public works contractors. In the said video, the Kano State governor could be seen collecting the dollars before rolling them into his white babariga in one of a series of questionable deals allegedly struck over a span of several months.