The Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Agency (KSPCACA) is set to investigate the Muhammadu Sanusi-led emirate council over an alleged misappropriation of billions of naira supposedly left behind by his predecessor, the late Alhaji Ado Bayero.
According to letter of summons signed by the agency’s Director of Operations, Sulaiman Gusau, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), and written to Sanusi, the agency is to probe activities in the emirate since 2015 when the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor ascended the throne.
DAILYPOST learnt that the summons ordered the secretary and treasurer to the council to report to the agency’s headquarters on May 2, 2017 to explain the alleged financial recklessness and perhaps, justify the legal framework under which the expenditure was made.
Speaking to journalists on the development, the Kano state anti-graft agency’s chairman, Muhuyi Magaji Rimin-Gado, neither denied nor confirmed the summons, but said he was not ready to dwell on any issue under investigation.
Asked what prompted the probe at this time, he maintained that the agency was acting on a petition from a citizen accusing the emirate council of financial recklessness under the current emir.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff to the emir, Alhaji Manir Sanusi, declining to provide detailed comments due to his incapacity to speak on the subject matter, however,n stated that the emirate was ready for a probe into its expenditure as planned by the state anti-corruption agency.
He further referred journalists to the financial controller of the emirate, Alhaji Mahe Bashir Wali, who later confirmed receipt of the summons.
Wali said: “We actually received a letter from the commission, I mean the anti-graft agency, Kano State-owned, yesterday requesting the secretary and treasurer of the council to appear before them next month, that is all.”
The probe comes a few days after an online publication allegedly disclosed plans by some northern governors to dethrone the monarch.
They were said to have been embarrassed by the position of the emir on their planned foreign loans, particularly the alleged $1.85 billion facility to be taken from the Chinese government for a light rail project in the state.
The monarch reportedly said at the just-concluded Kaduna Investment Summit that the proposed foreign loan would be a wasteful venture and misplacement of priority.
He was further quoted as saying that the plan would never add any impetus to the socio-economic value of the people but, rather, leave the state with an incurable infectious debt.
Shortly after Sanusi’s public outburst, another publication was reported to have shown online a supposed outrageous spending and extravagant disposition of the emir.
The report indicated how the monarch authorised billions of naira from the emirate council’s coffer.
Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Information Muhammad Garba, however, denied government’s involvement in the probe.
He insisted that the anti-graft agency was an independent body entrusted with a responsibility to be discharged without fear or favour.
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