A Federal High Court in Kano has ruled that the Kano State Public Compliant and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) lacks the power to investigate a former governor of the state, Abdullahi Ganduje, over his infamous dollar bribery video.
Ganduje is the Acting National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Abdullahi Liman, who delivered judgment on the case on Tuesday identified the offence as a federal one that can be prosecuted by the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Justice Liman, the PCACC has constitutional limitations to probe Ganduje over the bribery incident.
Meanwhile, the counsel for PCACC, Usman Umar Fari, has said the anti-corruption agency will challenge the judgment at the Court of Appeal.
SaharaReporters in 2023 reported that PCACC noted that forensic analysis had confirmed that the videos of Ganduje stuffing dollar bales into his attire were not doctored.
The video clips were first published by Daily Nigerian and they trended on social media in 2017. They showed Ganduje receiving bundles of dollar notes and stuffing them inside his flowing dress known as “babanriga.”
https://saharareporters.com/2023/07/05/former-kano-governor-gandujes-dollar-bribery-video-real-not-doctored-forensic-analysis
Ganduje had debunked the content of the videos, claiming the videos were doctored.
However, the Kano State House of Assembly subsequently set up a committee to investigate the allegations.
The Chairman of the agency, Barrister Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado, confirmed the authenticity of the videos, adding that his commission had commenced an investigation in 2018 but could not go far because Ganduje, who was the state governor at the time, had immunity.
SaharaReporters had also reported that Ganduje asked a Kano State High Court to perpetually restrain the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from investigating him over the video clips.
In a suit filed before the high court, the former Attorney General of the State asked the court to restrain the anti-graft commission from probing Ganduje until a suit between the former governor and the publisher of the Daily Nigerian, Jafaar Jafaar, was determined.
Ganduje, in the suit with the EFCC as the only respondent, through the former Kano attorney general, asked the court to declare that the invitation and interrogation of the state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) chairman and accountant general of the state in connection to the video was illegal.
