Sources at the Abuja headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed to First News on Tuesday, that wife of Kano State governor, Hafsat Ganduje, may be arraigned in court next Monday, barring odds.
She was grilled over an alleged multi-million naira land fraud, being allegations brought against her by her son, Abdulazeez Ganduje, who had since fled to Egypt along with members of his immediate family.
The Kano First Lady was reportedly interrogated for several hours in Abuja and allowed to go home later in the evening of Monday.
She is expected to return to the commission for further questioning at a later date.
The EFCC had initially invited her to its office to answer to a number of accusations brought up by her son but she failed to honour the summons, prompting threats of arrest from the anti-graft body.
‘So when Alhaja Ganduje eventually showed up on Monday, we grilled her and she was able to put up her defence in the allegation by her son that she embezzled money he gave her on behalf of a friend, to purchase some lands.
“Much as we do not find the defence water tight enough, some of us feel that the family can always resolve the issue, more so that the money involved is not a government fund.
“But to our surprise, Abdulazeez called, reminding us of our responsibilities-and he is right, and threatening to go to court himself if we do not arraign his mum,” an EFCC source, craving anonymity, revealed to our correspondent.
The source added that if by this week the family is unable to resolve its dispute, the case would be prosecuted in court.
But the source demurred, noting that a credible soft-landing would have been for Adulazeez to have a refund of the allegedly swindled land money, so the matter “can die there”.
Abdulazeez had reported her mum to the anti-graft agency; 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 N35 million as “facilitation commission.”
It was gathered that Abdulazeez claimed he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Hafsat 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,” a source recalled.
Alarmed and angry, Abdulazeez demanded a refund from her mum but when he was rebuffed, he raced to the EFCC office to lodge a complaint.
Asked to react to the riveting scandal , a spokesperson for Kano State Government, Mohammed Garba, said, “I am not aware”.
EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, too, could not be reached by our correspondent.