Kano Assembly not equipped to probe Ganduje, says Sagay SAN

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), says the Kano State House of
Assembly is not equipped to investigate Governor Abdullahi Ganduje
who was allegedly caught on camera collecting bribes from
contractors.

A video had gone viral on the Internet purportedly showing
Ganduje collecting dollars as kickbacks from contractors, a
development which prompted an investigation by the state assembly
which invited the governor to testify.

However, a Kano State High Court ruled on Monday that the
Assembly should stop the probe immediately.

Speaking with our correspondent during an interview on Tuesday,
Sagay said that an investigation of such a video would require
forensic analysis which the legislative arm of government was not
competent to carry out.

He said, “The fact that somebody on social media which is full
of lies and hate attacks against people says so does not prove that
such has happened.

“Personally I would like to see the contractor come out and say
‘yes I am the one and I gave him so and so amount’. I would like to
see that but that has not yet happened. In any case, when it comes
to the investigation of the governor, I think we have institutions
that have been established for that. We have the EFCC particularly
for that.

“I don’t really understand what role the House of Assembly
wanted to place on itself. It is not equipped to do investigations
of the sort because it could be forensic. So, in other words, there
is still a cloud over the whole thing and I am not ready to jump to
any conclusion until I am confident that some wrong has been
done.”

When asked if the legislative arm of government could not
investigate the governor as part of its oversight functions, Sagay
said the job of the Assembly was to carry out oversight functions
and not to investigate state executives.

The senior advocate said, “Oversight functions don’t include
that sort of thing. Oversight functions only involve monies that
have been approved in their budget and then oversight is done on
how such monies that were approved which have gone through the
budget system are being expended.

“That is where their oversight functions are limited to. This
allegation is about somebody from outside giving the governor some
money. It is not part of the House of Assembly’s
responsibilities.”

When asked if the failure to probe Ganduje would not portray the
anti-graft war of the current government as selective in the light
of the fact that Ayodele Fayose was probed despite having immunity,
Sagay said both scenarios were different.

The PACAC chairman said, “When there are clear cases it is easy
to act. In the case of Fayose, Musiliu Obanikoro confessed that he
ferried billions of naira to him through a private jet and
everything was well recorded. Everything was very clear. The man
who brought the money was very clear.

“The money was paid into bank accounts that were established.
So, it is not the same thing. This one seems to me to be very vague
and cloudy and I have yet to be satisfied that it is not a
political conspiracy of some sort by the enemies of the governor.
So, we need to see something more concrete.”