Court grants order to serve APC chairman Ganduje in bribery case
A Kano State High Court on Wednesday granted an order seeking to serve the chairman of the All Progressive Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, charged with alleged bribery and misappropriation.
The Kano State government dragged Mr Ganduje, his wife, Hafsat Umar, and son, Umar Abdullahi, to court over eight counts of misappropriation and diversion of funds during his eight-year tenure in office.
Others charged with Mr Ganduje are Abubakar Bawuro, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited and Lasage General Enterprises Limited. They are charged with eight counts of bribery, misappropriation and division of public funds running into billions of naira.
Justice Amina Adamu-Aliyu gave the order following an application made to that effect by the counsel to the state government, Zahradeen Kofar-Mata, standing for the lead prosecution counsel, Ya’u Adamu.
Earlier, the 6th respondent counsel, Nureini Jimoh, SAN, had challenged the appearance of the led prosecution counsel, Mr Adamu and his team on the ground that there is a fiat given to a specific person and only that person can appear in this case.
He objected to the motion ex parte, seeking to serve the respondents through substituted means.
The prosecution counsel, Mr Adamu, told the court that since his appearance has been challenged by the 6th respondent counsel, Zahradeen Kofar-Mata, he will move the application on motion ex parte.
” My Lord, Kofar-Mata has a fiat to appear in any matter concerning financial crime. I urge the court to allow us to move this motion,” he said.
Mr Kofar-Mata moved the motion ex parte filed and dated May 29, supported by seven paragraphs seeking to serve the respondents through substituted means by publishing them in two national daily newspapers.
Ms Adamu-Aliyu ordered parties involved to present their individual fiats to the court and adjourned the matter until July 11 for hearing.
