Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu dismissed the preliminary objection filed by the couple and seven other defendants on Tuesday, declaring it incompetent and upholding the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the charges.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and his wife, Dr Hafsat Umar, have lost their bid to stop the Kano High Court from hearing criminal charges brought against them over alleged misappropriation of public funds.
Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu dismissed the preliminary objection filed by the couple and seven other defendants on Tuesday, declaring it incompetent and upholding the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the charges.
The Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission had filed an amended 11-count charge against Ganduje, his wife, son Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, and five others, alleging bribery, diversion, and misappropriation of public funds running into billions of naira.
Other defendants in the case include Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General Enterprises Limited.
In her ruling, Justice Aliyu stated, “The charges filed by the prosecution on May 13, 2024, against the defendants are competent for trial.”
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She further clarified, “Powers to investigate criminal matters do not rest solely in the hands of the police,” affirming the authority of the state Anti-Corruption Commission to conduct such investigations.
The court also overruled similar jurisdictional objections filed by the other defendants and ruled that the matter would proceed on 30 and 31 July 2025, whether or not the accused appear.
Earlier, prosecution counsel Adeola Adedipe, SAN, informed the court that all respondents had been served the notice of reply to the preliminary objections and urged the court to dismiss the applications “for lack of merit.”
Defence counsel Barr. Lydia Oluwakemi Oyewo, representing Ganduje, his wife, and son, asked the court “to quash all charges against the defendants.”
One of the charges reads: “Kano state Government on your (Ganduje) instruction and approval asked one of the receivers of USSD 120,000 from a beneficiary of a contract awarded by Kano state government, contrary to and punishable under section 22 of the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission law 2008, (as amended) law no. 2 of 2009.”
Another states: “That on February 10, 2017, Abdullahi Ganduje dishonestly and/or corruptly to your advantage collected a kick-back of the sum of USSD 213,000 being money generated from people and entities seeking or holding the execution of Kano state government contract or project for the remoulding of Kantin-Kwari textile market as a bribe through one of the contractors.”
