Gov. Ganduje Moves Against Emir Of Kano

Kano state House of Assembly on Monday, May 6, started moves to create four additional emirates in the state in a bid to reduce the influence of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who is having a running battle with the state governor, Dr Umar Ganduje.

The Emir’s problem with Governor Ganduje was said to have started when the former started making negative comments about the latter’s administration. But the gulf between them widened with the just concluded governorship election in which Ganduje won with narrow margin in a supplementary poll.

Governor Ganduje, has reportedly relaunched plans to remove Muhammad Sanusi II as the emir of Kano, TheCable reports. It was gathered that the Kano state public complaints and anti-corruption commission on Monday, May 6, reopened investigation into the expenditure of the state emirate council under Sanusi II.

It was also learnt that at Monday’s plenary of the state House of Assembly, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, the speaker, read a letter from one Ibrahim Salisu and others, seeking the creation of new Kano emirates in Karaye, Bichi, Rano and Gaya. “The governor is determined to remove the emir, and if this does not succeed, he will break the emirate into pieces to whittle down Sanusi’s power,” an official of the state government, who asked not to be named, told the online news medium on Monday evening.

Recall that just as Ganduje is trying to break the emirate into smaller units, his son’s father-in-law, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, has done similar thing in Oyo state to decimate the power of Oluban, Oba Saliu Adetunji, by approving 21 beaded kings for Ibadan.

Emir Sanusi’s problem with Ganduje, it was learnt was usually traced to his critical comments in 2017 on the award of contracts to Chinese companies by the state government and on the governor’s foreign trips. Shortly after the comment, the Kano state public complaints and anti-corruption commission alleged the misappropriation of N6billion by the Kano emirate council without the approval of the state government.

The probe was halted then but it has now been revived. Sanusi II is believed to have opposed the re-election of Ganjude, who needed a disputed supplementary election to be returned to office in the March 2019 governorship election. In a letter dated May 2, 2019 and obtained by TheCable, the state anti-graft commission invited one Isa Bayero to appear before it to shed more light on the payment vouchers from 2013 to 2017 in his name.

Other officers in the emirate council to be quizzed, according to TheCable sources, include Mohammad Sani Kwaru, the accountant, Mannir Sanusi, the chief of staff, Danburan Mujittafa and Falakin Kano. The letter said the commission was inviting the staff over alleged violation of section 26 of its enabling law in the management of the emirate’s funds. The letter also stated that the invitation was sequel to the power conferred on it under “section 9 and 15 of Kano state public complaints and anti-corruption commission law 2008 (as amended).”

Sanusi II was appointed the 14th emir in 2014 after his suspension from office as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by former president Goodluck Jonathan. Ganduje was the deputy governor to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso when Sanusi II was appointed, but the former governor is no longer on good terms with his successor. Kwankwaso supported his son-in-law, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, to challenge Ganduje, but the incumbent was returned with a score of 1,033,695 a narrow difference of 8,982 votes. Ganjude lost the Kano municipal heavily, leading to rumours that he would come after the emir after the election. Sanusi II is the grandson of Muhammadu Sanusi I, the 11th emir of Kano who was deposed in 1963 after a disagreement with Ahmadu Bello, the sardauna of Sokoto and premier of northern region at the time.

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