Controversy trails EFCC’s ‘arrest’ of Ganduje’s wife for alleged fraud

The arrest of Hafsat Ganduje, wife of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has thrown up controversy.

The Guardian gathered that she was arrested on Monday evening over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son, Abdualzeez.

Mrs. Ganduje had, on September 13, 2021, been invited to the EFCC Abuja headquarters, but she failed to honour the invitation.

In a petition, the governor’s son had said he was approached by a property developer, to facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano, with hundreds of thousands of United States dollars as commission.

He added that three months later, the developer discovered that the plots of land he paid for had been allocated to other buyers and he demanded a refund, which the mother failed to honour, straining the relationship between him and the developer.

The suspect, who was compelled to report herself to the EFCC headquarters on Sunday, was quizzed for more than five hours, The Guardian gathered.

She was said to have secured her freedom from EFCC after series of interventions from the powers-that-be.

A reliable source revealed that Governor Ganduje, who accompanied his wife to the EFCC headquarters, was said to have pulled the necessary strings to secure the release of his wife yesterday.

But the Kano government has dispelled the news that Ganduje’s wife was arrested by EFCC.

A statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, insisted that the arrest story was a mere rumour being peddled by mischief-makers.

Muhammad regretted that the content of the story could not be attributed to any credible source such as the EFCC.

According to him, the “fake story” is being peddled on social media platforms without confirmation from either the government or the EFCC.

The commissioner called on the Kano people to disregard the rumour and to remain calm.