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The Financial and Monetary Crime Fee has invited and grilled former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwakwanso, over alleged N2.5bn pension fraud.
In keeping with The PUNCH, a supply within the anti-graft company conversant in the matter however had no authourisation to talk, mentioned, “The fee invited Kwankwaso over the alleged N2.5bn Kano pension funds. We’ve grilled Kwankwaso over the matter, and he has supplied some particulars to interrogators.”
One other supply famous, “Former Kano governor, Kwankwaso has been invited by the fee. He has been grilled, and we’re persevering with with our investigation.”
When contacted over the event, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale declined to remark.
Recall that in March 2023, the Abuja Zonal Command of the EFCC handed over paperwork of properties and 324 homes recovered from the Kano State pensioners to them.
The EFCC spokesman mentioned the handover of the homes was occasioned by a last forfeiture order granted by Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal Excessive Court docket sitting in Abuja.
He added that the forfeiture was a results of profitable investigations carried out by the EFCC over a N4.1bn Pension Belief Fund contributed by the pensioners to personal homes, which was fraudulently denied by two successive administrations in Kano State.
Oyewale mentioned, “The fee investigated a petition by Involved Kano State Employees and Pensioners of alleged misappropriation of pension funds within the state. Findings by the EFCC confirmed that the state authorities entered right into a tripartite settlement with the Kano State Pension Belief Fund to construct housing estates for an combination sum of N41bn, out of which the Pension Belief Fund was to contribute N4.1bn.
“Nonetheless, the contribution of the pensioners was used to construct the homes in three estates situated in Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo metropolis, Sheikh Nasiru Kabara (Amana) metropolis, and Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu metropolis, all in Kano State, and two former governors of the state fraudulently discounted and offered the homes to their cronies and associates, leaving the pension trustees with low finances and uncompleted homes.
“The EFCC stepped in and upon completion of the investigation, filed for and bought a last forfeiture order of the 324 properties to the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees.
“Whereas handing over the paperwork of the 324 properties value N4.1bn to the pensioners on Monday, March 18, 2024, the Abuja Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, Adeniyi Adebayo, assured that the EFCC would proceed to do its greatest to rid the nation of fraudulent practices.
“Representatives of the Kano State Pension Board, Alhaji Hassan Muhammed Aminu, Kubra Ahmad Bichi, and Salisu Yakubu Abubakar, who acquired the paperwork on behalf of the employees and pensioners, expressed delight and pleasure with the EFCC for aiding them in recovering their homes.”
The EFCC probe of Kwankwaso comes amid political pressure between the ruling New Nigeria Individuals’s Celebration (NNPP) he leads in Kano and the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by the immediate-past governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.
Final week, the state Meeting loyal to Kwankwanso’s political godson and incumbent governor, Abba Yusuf, reversed the splitting of the Kano emirate into 5 by Ganduje in 2020.
Yusuf restored a former Governor of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, who Ganduje dethroned because the Emir of Kano throughout his administration in 2020.
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