Following a recent verdict by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) sitting in Abuja suspending the Chairman of the Kano Public Complaint And Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhyi Magaji Rimingado, had led the state in a swift reaction raising charges against the immediate past Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, his wife, his son and five others, suing them for bribery.
Rimingado was arraigned before the Tribunal in Abuja on Thursday over alleged breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers, conflict of interest, abuse of office, false asset declaration, bribery and accepting gift, among others.
The Tribunal had also adopted the Complainant’s application directing the defendant to step aside as the Chairman of PCACC over allegation of contravening the provisions of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act CAP C15 LFN 2004 pending the hearing and determination of the case against Rimingado that is before the Tribunal.
It further issued an order directing the Kano state Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, and the Secretary to the State Government, Baffa Bichi to take all necessary steps to appoint the most appropriate officer to take over as Acting Chairman of the PCACC pending the hearing and determination of the case before the Tribunal.
However, government sources say the government will appeal the ruling as there is a standing court order restraining the arraignment, processes of the Code of Conduct Bureau, the EFCC and others.
The Kano anti-graft tsar, Rimingado, was quick to lead the Kano state government to sue former Governor Ganduje, his wife Hafsat, Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar (Ganduje’s son), Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Ltd, Safari Textiles Ltd and Lesage General Enterprises in an eight count charge that boarder around bribery and corruption.
Some of these charges include allegation of receiving $200,000 bribe, $213,000 kickback, converting N1.376 billion for personal use, acquiring land belonging to peasant farmers and selling it at N700 million among others.
Earlier in the same day, the Kano state Governor had inaugurated two Judicial Commissions of Inquiry to probe the immediate past government led by Ganduje.
It would be recalled that Rimingado had served under Governor Ganduje as the Chairman of the Anti-corruption agency but thing fell apart between the duo and was suspended from his position.
Rimingado was suspended over his alleged opposition to the posting of an accountant to the agency from the Office of the Accountant-General of the state then.
Former Gov Ganduje, approved the sacking of the Chairman, Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Muhuyi Rimingado which was two years after the Kano State House of Assembly had recommended his immediate sack from his position as chairman of the anti-graft agency.
The development was contained in a letter dated January 24, 2023, and signed by the Secretary to the Kano State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji.
Rimingado was quick to return to the red cap zone and join the major opposition party New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) dominated by the the Kwankwasiyya Movement in the state led by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to share the common interest of facing the Ganduje camp in the state.
On assumption of power, the NNPP reinstated Rimingado as the Chairman of the Anti-corruption agency, Kano state in what is seen by political analysts to be very strategic being that he had served under Ganduje and can be a tool to tame the former Governor.
More so, Rimingado’s travails at the EFCC, ICPC and CCT are all seen to be the efforts of the Ganduje camp as a means of taming him down also.
On its own side, the Kano state government is set to probe sales and misappropriation of government property as well as political violence during and after the elections. The probe will spread it’s tentacles from 2015, 2019 to 2023, the period during which Ganduje served as the state’s governor.
It would be recalled that the state government in it’s assumption of power in the state had engaged in demolition of property across the state suspected to have been unlawfully acquired by friends and associates of the immediate past regime.
The state government was forced to pay a whooping N3 billion to victims of demolition of shops in the state by the Federal High Court which it agreed and paid.
Meanwhile, the tempo in the state has heated up even as many are opposed to it as they say, there are better things to do for the development, welfare and progress of the people and the state than engage in fierce political rivalry thereby wasting resources and energy that could have been properly utilized to enhance welfare and security of the people.
All eyes now on the stage as Kwankwasiyya battles Gandujiyya in Kano.