EFCC arrests Ganduje’s Wife

Hafsat Ganduje, the wife of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, has been arrested by the EFCC over a bribery and land fraud case reported by her son.

According to a report by Premium Times Mrs Ganduje had earlier been invited to report to the EFCC’s Abuja headquarters on September 13 but she did not appear.

The graft agency then threatened to arrest her. Sources close to her later said she travelled to the UK at the time to attend the graduation ceremony of her son.

Investigators are questioning Mrs Ganduje over allegations relating to land fraud in a petition by her own son, Abdualzeez Ganduje.

A person, who has the knowledge of the arrest but asked not to be identified, said “she was arrested this (Monday) evening.”

Abdulazeez had dragged his mum, Hafsat Ganduje, to the EFCC, sources familiar with the matter said, suggesting a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment.

According to sources who saw Abdulazeez’s petition, he reported that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least 35 million naira as “facilitation commission”.

Abdulazeez said he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs Ganduje.

“But three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he wanted and had paid the first family for had been allocated to other buyers and he then requested to be refunded,” one source added.