Three interim chairmen of local government areas in Kano State have been detained by the State’s Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) in connection with an alleged N660 million fraud involving water contracts.
The affected caretaker chairmen include Abdulaziz Sulaiman of Kiru local government area, Basiru Abubakar of Bebeji local government area, and Gambo Isa of Garko local government area. They were accused of diverting public funds into their private accounts.
LEADERSHIP reports that the arrest of the three political office-holders comes as part of a broader investigation into the misuse of funds allocated for water projects in the State.
According to sources privy to the investigation, the three officials have confessed to misappropriating the funds. The PCACC’s probe has also led to the detention of 19 additional individuals, including treasurers, heads of departments for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and other senior officials from various local government areas of the State. The officials were accused to have been involved in transferring public funds to individual accounts and, in some cases, making large cash withdrawals against extant laws.
One of the key figures in the investigation is Musa Garba Kwankwaso, a nephew of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement and the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the state. Kwankwaso was taken into custody but was released on bail around 9pm this Thursday night. He has been directed to return to the PCACC office on Monday for further questioning.
Kwankwaso’s involvement centers on his company, Novomed Pharmaceuticals, which was alleged to have received N10 million from each of Kano State’s 44 local government areas as part of a N440 million drug supply contract.
The PCACC has flagged the contract as fraudulent and has frozen over N160 million in Novomed’s accounts as part of its ongoing investigation.
The N660 million in question was part of a larger N1.1 billion fund approved by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf for water and medical supplies across the state’s 44 local government areas. The fund was intended to address critical water and health issues for the months of August, September, and October 2024. Of the N25 million allocated to each local government area in August, it was discovered that N10million was directed to Novomed Pharmaceuticals under suspicious circumstances.
The indicted three local government chairmen, though granted bail, were yet to fulfill their bail conditions for their release.
Meanwhile, Musa Garba Kwankwaso’s legal counsel, Barrister Okechukwu Nwaeze, has expressed intentions to challenge the investigation, arguing that the simultaneous involvement of multiple anti-corruption agencies—the PCACC, ICPC, and EFCC—was unconstitutional.