A coalition of civil society groups, Movement Against Corruption in Nigeria (MACIN), has called on the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Interpol and other relevant agencies to put the former governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje on close watch in order to avoid escaping from the country.
The group disclosed this during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Kano on Sunday.
This is coming barely a few days after the state Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) resumed its investigations into the alleged ‘dollar videos’ that show the former governor stuffing dollars into his pocket.
Daily Trust gathered that after attempting to invite the former governor for questioning by the commission, a Federal High court in the state issued an order stopping the PCACC and EFCC from arresting and investigating him.
However, during the press briefing, the lead convener of the groups, Comrade Kabiru Saidu Dakata urged the NIS and Interpol to put Ganduje on watch list as he is hiding under the present Bola Tinubu’s led administration and a delay tactics to escape arrest, and that his third option is to run out of the country.
The groups also called on Ganduje to respect the law and submit himself to the said anti-graft agency for investigation.
Reacting to the press conference, former Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs under the Ganduje administration, Malam Muhammad Garba, dismissed as “mere gimmickry” a call by the groups that President Tinubu should distance himself from the former governor.
Garba said in a statement that the lead convener, Kabiru Saidu Dakata, “who has been a card-carrying member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and now the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), has always been hiding under the guise of his ‘brief case’ Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which he used to attack the former administration in the state.”
He added that Dakata was recently in the media desperately seeking attention and possible appointment in the NNPP government in Kano. Garba said Dakata was recently ‘sponsored’ to appear on Arise TV to justify the NNPP’s “demolition spree in Kano.”
The statement “stressed that Tinubu and Ganduje were two leaders sharing the same vision and experience about governance and development which was why they go together.”
