The Kano State Government has filed new charges against former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and former Commissioner for Justice, Musa Lawan.
The charges, filed in the Kano State High Court, allege criminal conspiracy, misappropriation, and breach of trust.
According to the charge sheet, Ganduje and Lawan are accused of conspiring to divert and convert N240 million for personal use, contrary to the Penal Code.
According to Channels TV, the prosecution plans to present four witnesses to testify against the defendants.
This latest legal action follows a series of legal challenges faced by Ganduje and his associates. The court has yet to set a date for the commencement of the trial.
Ganduje and Lawan are accused of abusing their offices and misappropriating public funds, contrary to sections 97 and 315 of the Penal Code. The state government is seeking justice and accountability for the alleged offenses.
The charge sheet states, “The duo are standing trial for dishonestly, fraudulently, and without reasonable justification, in the abuse of your respective offices, conspired between yourselves, misappropriated, diverted, and converted the sum of Two Hundred and Forty Million Naira (N240,000,000.00) to finance purely personal and private cases for your own personal and private benefit, thereby causing wrongful gain to yourselves and wrongful loss to the Government and people of Kano State.”
The court charges said, “In reality, the funds were purportedly used to secure an order preventing the EFCC from investigating bribery and corruption allegations against Ganduje.”
The prosecution counsel, Adeola Adedipe (SAN) informed the court that the defendants had been served, and an affidavit of service was filed on June 6.
He noted, “My lord, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th respondents are not in court nor represented, only the 6th respondent”.
Adedipe requested the court to enter a plea of not guilty on behalf of the absent defendants, citing section 278(1)(2) of the Kano State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2019.
“The court should enter a plea of not guilty on behalf of the defendants who refused to answer the complaint in the charge,” Adedipe argued.
He also urged the court to issue a bench warrant of arrest under Section 388 of the Kano State ACJL, stressing, “The essence of an arrest warrant is for the sanctity and urgency of the court because an order has been made for the defendants to appear before it and they refused”.
However, counsel for the 6th respondent, Nureini Jimoh (SAN) contended that service had not been properly effected on his client.
“We filed a notice of preliminary objection on the competency of the entire charge. The court does not have constitutional power on any of the count charges,” Jimoh stated.
He also mentioned that an application for a stay of execution had been filed before the Court of Appeal, “restraining the prosecution from publishing any charges against the 6th respondent”.
