A former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has denied media reports that he was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The former governor, however, said he personally visited the commission’s office to clear his name over “some frivolous petition” against him.
Mr Kwankwaso said he visited the commission headquarters to give his own side of the story over the allegations, adding that he personally reported to EFCC, where he met with the officials of the anti graft agency for some few hours.
Mr Kwankwaso, a former defence minister, described the petition as politically motivated, allegedly concocted by political opponents who are bent on embarrassing him.
He said there was no iota of truth on the whole allegation.
“The rumour of my arrest is false and baseless. As a law abiding and respected citizen, I personally visited the commission on Saturday in order to clear my name and exactly that’s what happened”.
“I met with them, the officials of EFCC and told them that I came to clear my name over a petition written since 2015 against me. I provided answers to all the questions raised by the officials” the former governor said.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the EFCC is acting on a petition filed against Mr Kwankwaso in 2015 by Concerned Kano State Workers and Pensioners, alleging that he violated the Kano State Pension and Gratuity Law of 2007 in the management of pension remittances amounting to about N10 billion contributed between 2011 and 2015.
According to the petitioners, Mr Kwankwaso had directed that pension remittances be used for housing development, largely to favour the pensioners. Then, a tripartite deal was reached between Kano State Pension Trust Funds as the investors and Kano State Investment and Property Limited and Kano State Housing Corporation Limited as developers on a 60:40 sharing ratio.
However, after contracts for the construction of 1,579 houses were awarded for the development of ”Kwankwasiya, Amana and Bandarawo Cities”, the petitioners alleged, Mr Kwankwaso “manipulated” the process to terminate the term of the agreement and made outright allocations in favour of his aide and cronies.
The alleged manipulation happened in May 2015, the month Mr Kwankwaso left office as Kano’s governor.
