Ime Akpan
The governor of Kano State, Mr. Abdullahi Ganduje, on Thursday, queried the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi 11 for alleged misappropriation of N3.4 billion.
The office of the secretary to the state government issued the letter on behalf of the governor on Thursday and sought the emir’s response within 24 hours.
The chief of staff to the emir, Mr. Munir Sanusi, confirmed the receipt of the query
“We received the query today (Thursday). The state government has demanded the response of His Highness within 24 hours. The council is studying the content,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission had in an interim report of its investigation uncovered over N3.4 billion allegedly misappropriated by the Emir and according recommended his suspension.
The recommendation is contained in a preliminary report of investigation conducted by the commission and signed by its chairman, Mr. Muhuyi Magaji.
The amount was said to have been misappropriated between 2014 and 2017.
The interim report raised four cardinal issues bordering on indictments, amount involved, obstruction of investigation and recommendations.
A breakdown of the figure shows that the Kano Emirate Council under the chairmanship of Sanusi II expended N1, 450, 641, 048.53 only in various expenditures that were not appropriated for and another N1, 981, 449, 749.41 on seemingly personal and questionable expenditures.
For instance, the report said N54, 111, 055.00) was expended by the Emirate Council from 2014 to 2017 on payment of airtime/data to Airtel Network Ltd, mostly on personal phone numbers.
“In his statement, Isah Bayero denied using his line to incur expenditure worth N25.6 million while the remaining N29 million was incurred by the Emir, his wives and Mannir Sanusi. Failure of the appearance of the invited suspects made it impossible for the Commission to conclude on this matter.
“Another area of concern which revealed a prima facie case of criminal breach of trust by servant is where… N144, 362, 381 .00) only was spent on hotel accommodation, payment of chartered aircraft and payment of air ticket by the Kano State Emirate Council from 2014 – 2017,” it said.
The commission, in its recommendations said: “Based on the aforementioned findings and pursuant to the provisions of Section 18 (4) of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Law 2008 (as amended), the Commission hereby recommends as follows: (a) In view of the prima facie cases of criminal breach of trust by servant, official corruption and other related offences contrary to the Penal Code Law, Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Law 2008 (as amended) and other existing Laws, the Commission recommends that the principal suspect in the person of Muhammad Sunusi II (the Emir of Kano) and all other suspects connected to this case or serving in the Kano State Emirate Council should be suspended pending the final outcome of the investigations.
“This is a necessary administrative disciplinary action aimed at preventing the suspects from further interfering with the Commission’s investigations.”
