Kano State Civil Society Groups on Thursday called on
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the state Governor,
Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, for allegedly withdrawing N235,500,000, from the state
government treasury ahead of the supplementary election due in nine days’ time.
But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for
Local Government, Murtala Sule Garo, described the allegation as politically-motivated
to dent the government image, stressing that the fund was part of budgetary
allocations meant for capital projects in the state.
The groups stated this in a petition to the anti-graft
agency yesterday titled: ‘Petition against Kano State Government over attempt
to buy votes ahead of the March 23, 2019, rRerun gubernatorial election in Kano’.
The petition signed by Co-conveners of the group, Kabiru
Saidu Dakata and Abdulrazaq Alkai, urged the crime commission to probe the
suspicious withdrawal.
According to them, “We wish to draw your attention
to a suspicious withdrawal ofN235,500,000, from Kano State Government treasury
through the Ministry for Local Governments.”
They also alleged that "the said amount has been
allocated to different local governments where INEC is scheduled to hold the re-run
election in the state.
"The groups are aware of the effort your
commission in curbing the menace of vote buying, especially by encouraging
Nigerians to report incidents of votes buying to your commission, either
through the already shared phone numbers or through other means."
The Kano based CSOs explained in the petition that
"it is in recognition of EFCC's commitment to curb this menace that this
information is contained in a leaked document dated March 12, 2019, that is now
available in the public domain."
They also alleged that "on March 13, 2019,
arrests of some votes buying agents have been made in some communities where gubernatorial
re-run election will take place, and some of those agents confirmed that they
were working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, as one of
them confirmed on a popular local radio programme in Kano last Wednesday."
The groups appealed to "EFCC to investigate
this matter, while also putting some measures in those communities to ensure
that votes buying, before and during the election, does not influence the gubernatorial
re-run election in the state."
They, therefore, assured EFCC of its commitment
to continue to support the efforts of the commission to curb votes buying and
any other form of corruption in the state and Nigeria at large.
However, in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner
for Local Government, Murtala Sule Garo, refuted the claim, insisting that the
groups are political motivated to dent the image of the government.
Murtala told journalists in Kano that no money was
allocated to compromise election, explaining that the money released was part
of budgetary allocation to fund capital projects.
Dismissing the claim that the funds was released
specifically to places where rerun will hold, the commissioner posited that
only nine local councils benefited out of the 30 areas where rerun will hold.
"It is not true and it gross misinformation.
The money released is part of normal allocation from government treasury since
both state government and local council operate joint account.
"We need not to buy votes because the people are
already with the state government. And if they say we released money to
compromise election, the allocation was meant for 13 LGA's, and out of these
councils, rerun will hold only in nine,” he stated.
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