By our reporters
The last may not have been heard about the travails of the Executive Chairman of Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhuyi Magaji, on whose Commission the investigation searchlight is currently beamed following allegations of huge financial fraud in its operations.
There are indications that the embattled chairman had earlier planned an elaborate survival strategy in anticipation of a plot for his removal allegedly masterminded by the Kano State First Lady, Professor Hafsa Umar Ganduje.
The PCACC boss was said to have stepped on the first lady’s toes allegedly in connection with certain activities of the Commission, where the governor’s wife is believed to wield a lot of influence controlling some vital supplies to the agency.
Nonetheless, Magaji was said to have lobbied for a job at the federal level as the Chief Commissioner of Federal Public Complaints Commission, all in a bid to escape the supposed wrath of the state first lady.
He reportedly hired and moved to an apartment in Abuja, the nation’s capital, in confident anticipation of the said federal appointment.
According to a source close to the Commission, Magaji had also tied up all important documents in his office and prepared a hand-over note full of expectations that his name would be announced for the federal job.
However, by a dramatic twist of fate, Magaji’s dream job was not to be as Mr Abimbola Ayo-Yusuf from Lagos State was, in May 2021, announced as the new Chief Commissioner for the Public Complaint Commission.
Anyhow, the ordeal of the PCACC chairman was said to have begun after Magaji led a delegation of the state government in the disbursement of over N5bn (five billion naira) to foreign scholarship students, an arrangement that was allegedly against the wish of the Kano State First Lady.
According to the source, Prof Hafsa Ganduje, who allegedly exerted a lot of influence around the State Treasury, has since allegedly made things difficult for the state anti-corruption commission.
SAHELIAN TIMES gathered that since the commencement of investigation into the commission’s books, the commission has been witnessing months of salary delay while its overhead budget had been put on hold.
According to an insider information source in the office of the Auditor-General, the accountant at the PCACC was immediately replaced in further move to open full investigation into the agency’s financial transactions.
The PCACC had, in a press release on 4th May, announced that it would no longer entertain any matter relating to payment of students on both domestic and foreign scholarship.
A source noted that the announcement was yet another move by the Commission management to avoid any clash with the powerful first lady.
Nevertheless, things worsened when the chairman reportedly continued to step on the toes of the First Lady.
In a letter dated June 10, 2021, with reference number PCACC/CM/OFF/VOL.1/071, the chairman requested the State Commissioner for Works to provide information relating to the construction of the Cancer Centre as well as the supply of diesel by the state government.
Meanwhile, the said letter said in part, “In the exercise of its powers under Section 9 and Section 15 of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Law 2008 (as amended), the Commission is currently conducting an investigation, which requires you to provide the following details:-
(a) All documents relating to Cancer Centre
(b) All documents pertaining to procurement of Diesel.
(c) Any other information that will aid the Commission’s investigation.”
The State Government has compiled the list of offences of the embattled anti-corruption chief.
For instance Muhuyi is said to have employed a level 7 officer from his Rimin Gado town as the Chief accountant of the commission.
Ganduje, in a circular that replaced the commission’s accountant with a senior officer, ordered for an audit of the commission’s transactions since Muhuyi’s inception.
Civil society groups like CAJA had repeatedly demanded that Muhuyi provides details on how he spent OGP funds but he refused.
