Bribery Video: Court Fixes December 6 For Judgment On Ganduje’s Investigation

A Kano High Court has fixed Thursday, Dec. 6, to rule on whether
the state House of Assembly has the power to investigate the
bribery allegation against Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the National
Coordinator of “Lawyers for Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria’’, an
NGO, Mr Mohammed Zubair had filed a suit challenging the court’s
constitutional right to investigate the bribery allegation.

When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, counsel to the
Kano state House of Assembly, Mohammed Waziri argued that the
Assembly had the power to investigate any person including the
governor for the purpose of making laws and checking
corruption.

He said even though the governor had immunity but it is not
against the investigation to be conducted by the House.

Waziri, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss the application
filed by the counsel to the plaintiff due to the fact that it was
trying to usurp powers given to the House by the constitution.

However, in his argument, counsel to the plaintiff, Nuraini
Jimoh said the House had the power to investigate the governor in
view of the fact that it would conduct the investigation in order
to expose corruption specifically mentioned by the
constitution.

“What the House is investigating is no doubt a crime against the
governor. But by doing so, they are exercising their powers to
expose corruption,’’ he said.

In his submission, the third defendant, who is also the state
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ibrahim Muktar
maintained that the House had no power to conduct criminal
investigation against the governor.

According to him, the state Assembly has no trained experts or
investigators to conduct the investigation, and as such assignment
should be referred to the police or any relevant agencies.

“The House has no capacity to conduct criminal investigation and
it will be to the detriment of the person being investigated
because they lack the capacity to conduct the investigation,” he
said.

In his ruling after listening to the argument of both parties,
the presiding Judge, Justice, A. T. Badamasi fixed Thursday, Dec.
6, for judgment on whether the state Assembly had the power to
carry out the investigation or not.

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