Kano anti-corruption agency withdraws invitation to Sanusi’s wife

The Kano State Public Complaints and Anti Corruption Commission has withdrawn its earlier invitation to the wife of Muhaammadu Sanusi, emir of Kano, and two widows of Ado Bayero, the former emir of Kano.

This was conveyed in a letter dated June 20, 2019, and signed by Salisu Tahir, director of public complaints and mediation of the commission.

The agency had alleged that over 30 people benefitted from the N3.4 billion said to have been misappropriated under the watch of Sanusi.

The commission had asked those invited to report to its office on June 24.

In an interview with NAN, Muhuyi Magaji, chairman of the commission, said the commission found it necessary to withdraw the invitation following the discovery of the name of the wife of the emir on the list of those invited for investigation.

According to him, the commission will now request for the documents on and limit itself to the expenditures that the agency is probing.

“More than 30 people have been pencilled down for invitation because we have information that whenever we requested for information or document they used to deny us and they engage in producing same apparently in anticipation of a court case,” he said.

“Therefore, we decided to invite those necessary based on the available facts at hand. The recent issue is for medical trip overseas and we decided to invite the beneficiaries because even the accountant was not allowed to come to us. So we don’t have anybody to ask.

“The issue of the emir’s wife and any other person, apart from the district heads, we don’t know them. It didn’t even come over any one of us that the emir’s wife will be among those to benefit from medical assistance.”

The agency revived its probe of Sanusi after the monarch fell out with Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state.

The commission had earlier recommended the suspension of Sanusi, prompting the state government to query the monarch.

However, there are efforts to reconcile Ganduje and Sanusi. The governor spoke about this at Aso Rock on Tuesday.