Hafsat Ganduje, wife of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, shunned an invitation extended to her by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, to report for questioning, last week, over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son, Abdualzeez.

Mrs Ganduje was invited to report last Thursday to the Abuja headquarters of EFCC.

Abdulazeez had dragged his mum, Hafsat Ganduje, to the EFCC, sources familiar with the matter said, suggesting a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment.

Ganduje, the governor, had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. He has struggled to untangle himself from the public perception that he is a corrupt public servant since 2018 when Daily Nigerian published a series of videos that showed the governor collecting money from a government contractor.

According to sources who saw Abdulazeez’s petition, he reported that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million Naira as “facilitation commission”.

It was further learnt that Abdulazeez said he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs Ganduje.

“But three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he wanted and had paid the first family for had been allocated to other buyers and he then requested to be refunded,” one source added.

Asked to comment on the matter, a spokesperson for Kano State Government, Mohammed Garba, said, “I am not aware” and, so, he could not comment.

EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, did not comment on the matter when contacted on Monday.

But insiders said Mrs Ganduje could be arrested if she refuses to report for questioning. Unlike her husband, who by virtue of his office, enjoys immunity from arrest and prosecution, Mrs Ganduje enjoys no such constitutional immunity.

PT