By Abba Auwalu Issa
After hours of interrogation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released Hafsat Ganduje, the wife of Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, in connection with a bribery and land fraud case.
According to commission sources, the powerful Kano State governor’s wife was interrogated until the early hours of Monday.
She was released yesterday and told to report back when needed.
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She returned to Kano on Tuesday morning after being grilled by the anti-graft body.
On Tuesday, a state government source confirmed to HotPen that Hafsat Ganduje is currently at the Kano government house.
The Governor’s wife has an engagement at Danbatta local government later today, Tuesday.
Background
According to sources familiar with the matter, Abdulazeez dragged his mother, Hafsat Ganduje, to the EFCC, indicating a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment.
The governor, Mr. Ganduje, had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. Since 2018, when the Daily Nigerian published a series of videos showing the governor collecting money from a government contractor, he has struggled to distance himself from the public perception that he is a corrupt public servant.
According to sources who saw Abdulazeez’s petition, he reported being approached by a property developer to assist in the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano for hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million naira as “facilitation commission.”
PREMIUM TIMES also learned that Abdulazeez stated that he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs. Ganduje.
“However, three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he desired and had paid the first family for had been assigned to other buyers, and he then requested a refund,” one source added.