By Our Correspondent
Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has given the state’s governor-elect, Abba Kabir Yusuf (Abba Gida-Gida), a bitter response to his continuous comments on the state’s affairs.
Abba had criticized Ganduje’s attempt to secure loans from banks, while his transition committee issued “public warnings” to developers that bought government properties from Ganduje’s administration to stop developing or working on the properties, hinting at plans to review such sales when the governor-elect is sworn in on May 29.
He vowed to probe all sales of government property by the Ganduje administration.
But Ganduje replied to all these in a recent viral audio, saying Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s administration in which he served as deputy governor began the sales of government properties in the state.
Kwankwaso is Abba’s political godfather and leader of the party under which the governor-elect was elected.
Ganduje said sale of government properties was nothing new and that the governor-elect should go and ask his political father (referring to Kwankwaso) on how he began the policy when he was governor.
Ganduje served as Kwankwaso’s deputy for two terms in 1999-2003 and 2011-2015 before succeeding him.
In the now viral audio, Ganduje could be heard saying, “Kwankwaso and Ganduje’s government, we are the ones who brought that policy. We sold out houses, most of them to workers, some to politicians.
“They are saying that we have sold government houses, not knowing that his father in politics, his grandfather in politics was the one who started selling government houses.
“If he said it’s not true, let him go to a radio station where he will get the list of the government houses his grandfather sold. Government houses that his father in politics sold out. This is not the time discuss this.
“If I am to call out names of senior government workers and politicians that bought government houses, we can spend the night counting.”
The governor added that the sale of government properties was “nothing new”, adding “it did not start now, will not stop now and is not a crime.
“This is nothing new. I worked in Abuja, I resided in a government house and at last, the federal government sold it to me.”
The governor added, “From the federal to state level, the government is no longer building houses for its workers to reside. The ones it has have been sold to workers. It is nothing new.
“Government workers residing in its houses, most of them have been sold but those who bought them couldn’t reside because government workers are occupying them.
“Because there are new houses, government workers are being transferred into these kinds of offices and leave the houses to those who bought them.”
