By Abiola Olawale
The scheduled arraignment of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a two-time Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, was stalled following the failure of the Kano State government to serve criminal charges.
The New Diplomat reports that Ganduje was to be arraigned alongside his wife, Hafsat Ganduje, his son, Umar Abdullahi Umar, and five others on eight count charges bordering on bribery allegations, however, the defendants were conspicuously absent in the court.
During the court proceedings which was presided over by Justice Usman Malam of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano State, counsel to the Kano State government, Barka. Y. A. Adamu told the court that they could not serve the respondents personally.
Adamu prayed before the court to grant an exparte motion application seeking to serve the respondents through substituted means but counsel to the 6th respondent, Bar. Nureini Jimoh SAN objected to it.
This was immediately met by a strong objection from the Counsel to the 6th respondent, Bar. Nureini Jimoh.
Jimoh argued that there is no provision for service on criminal charges by exparte motion vowing to challenge such a move at the Court of Appeal.
Following the arguments from both sides, Justice Na’abba adjourned the matter till 29th April 2024 for continuation.
The Kano State government had recently dragged Ganduje, wife, son, and five others to court over alleged corruption and misappropriation of public funds.
The former Governor was accused of collecting a $400,000 kickback from a contractor. The government also accused Ganduje of criminal conspiracy, misappropriation, diversion of public funds, and bribery, to the tune of N1.3 billion.
