Politics

Ganduje: They Are Desperate To Kill – Gado Cries Out Over Ordeal With Corrupt Politicians

Published

4 months ago

December 11, 2025

The Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, has likened the anti-corruption campaign in Nigeria to the decades-long war waged by US and Colombian authorities against drug cartels.

He lamented that his investigation into the looting of billions of public funds in Kano State under former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has led to “ceaseless threats” to his life and that of his family, culminating in his arrest last Friday by armed security agents.

Abia Radio News reports that the PCACC is currently prosecuting the former Kano governor over corruption allegations.

Speaking at a public presentation of the 19th Edition of the Compendium on 100 High Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria in Lagos, Magaji stated that the campaign against corruption in Nigeria is as dangerous as fighting armed Colombian drug cartels.

He also linked the increase in violence and banditry in the North to the stealing of public funds by corrupt officials, “whose self-serving policies create a stagnant pool of poverty and human misery from which criminals find many potential recruits”

According to him, it was when he began investigating corruption petitions that he discovered most of the companies involved in public-private partnership ventures in the state were linked to Ganduje.

He said he also uncovered billions of illicit funds relating to the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) particularly concerning fraudulent land rents.

Reflecting on his experience while investigating “an avalanche of corruption cases in Kano”, the anti-corruption campaigner noted that “corrupt politicians are like cancerous ailments that should be removed through a painful but necessary surgical operation before Nigeria can reclaim her pride in the comity of nations”.

Speaking on his arrest, Magaji added that for 17 hours he endured harrowing experiences, being bundled into a vehicle and sandwiched between armed policemen during the journey.

Expressing shock at the ordeal, he observed that if armed bandits had attacked the convoy, there would have been only a slim chance of escape.

He said, “The cases I started investigating in Kano involved billions of public funds diverted by public officials. They are desperate to kill in order to sit on stolen funds. They are as dangerous as drug cartels in Colombia. Fighting them is like fighting drug lords.”

Magaji stressed that corruption cannot be fought effectively when law enforcement agents are compromised by the same corrupt politicians who have no respect for accountability.

He alleged that some policemen are currently being used against him by “powerful but stupendously corrupt politicians who feed on the misery of the toiling masses”.

The Kano PCACC chairman questioned why the Nigeria Police Force would undertake a criminal investigation into a judicial process duly initiated under Section 211 of the Nigerian Constitution. He argued that it is prejudicial for the police to pursue someone who has filed corruption charges on behalf of the state against corrupt politicians.

He added, “I was given fiat by the Attorney General to prosecute allegations of offence against the laws of Kano State. Why arresting me for doing what I have legal duty to do? Why not arrest the state if they can?

“The police have no legal or moral reasons to enquire about what is already before the court of law, especially a criminal matter which the court has already taken cognisance of.”