N4.1BILLION PROPERTY FRAUD: How Kwankwaso, Ganduje defrauded Kano pensioners, as EFCC recovers 324 Houses
The Abuja zonal command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has handed over documents of properties and 324 to Kano state pensioners.
The houses were recovered from the state government.
The handing over of the houses, occasioned by a final forfeiture order granted by Justice I. E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting Abuja, was a result of successful investigations carried out by the Commission over a N4.1billion Pension Trust Fund contributed by the pensioners to own houses, which was fraudulently denied them by two successive administrations in Kano State.
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EFCC revealed this in a press release on Wednesday, but refused to mention the governors under whose administrations the fraud was perpetrated.
Nigerian Sketch however observed that it was the administration of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso that initiated the housing project and involved the pensioners fund in it. His deputy at the time, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, eventually became governor, and both left the pensioners out in the cold.
The Commission said it investigated a petition by Concerned Kano State Workers and Pensioners of alleged misappropriation of pension funds in the state.
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It said its findings showed that the state government entered into a tripartite agreement with the Kano State Pension Trust Fund to build housing estates for an aggregate sum of N41billion (Forty-One Billion Naira), out of which the Pension Trust Fund was to contribute N4.1billion (Four Billion One Hundred Million Naira).
“The contribution of the pensioners was used to build the houses in three estates located in Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo city, Sheikh Nasiru Kabara (Amana) city and Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu city, all in Kano state and two former governors of the state fraudulently discounted and sold the houses to their cronies and associates, leaving the pension trustees with low budget and uncompleted houses. The EFCC stepped in and upon completion of investigation, filed for and acquired a final forfeiture order of the 324 properties to the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees”, the antigraft agency said in the release.
While handing over the documents of the 324 properties worth N4.1billion to the pensioners on Monday, March18, 2024, the Abuja Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Adeniyi Adebayo assured that the EFCC would continue to do its best to rid the nation of fraudulent practices.
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Representatives of the Kano State Pension Board, Alhaji Hassan Muhammed Aminu, Kubra Ahmad Bichi and Salisu Yakubu Abubakar, who received the documents on behalf of the workers and pensioners, expressed delight and joy with the EFCC for assisting them in recovering their houses.
