The clouds may not have fully cleared over the head of the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sunusi II, as the state’s anti-corruption commission said Tuesday the evidence against the Emirate Council were “intact”.Multiple sources at the agency said that the agency had resumed the probe, a day after the House of Assembly suspended its investigation of the emir.
The commission had last month announced the investigation but pulled the break after the State House of Assembly earlier this month resolved to undertake a similar exercise with the emir as its focus.
The legislators however on Monday dropped the probe following an appeal by the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, at the behest of prominent figures within and outside the state, including acting President Yemi Osinbajo and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar.
It was gathered that the commission has obtained two court orders to look into the accounts of the emirate council.
“That the State Assembly stopped the investigation just two weeks after its commencement is like giving us the go ahead to continue where we stopped”, a source at the commission stated.
The source said the commission was not happy with the initial interference of the State Assembly in the matter as members thought it had cast the investigation as a political exercise.
The source hinted that the commission had gathered ample evidence and that the two court orders have provided a basis for the commission to see through the process.
The Chairman of the commission, Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, who is in Medina, Saudi Arabia on lesser hajj, confirmed on phone that the commission had not discarded the evidence it had gathered.
“Our commission is empowered by section 6 of our laws to investigate whoever, no matter his position and as for this matter what I will say is that we have not destroyed our evidence. We have them intact, but I will not make further comments,” he added.
When our reporter visited the commission’s office, he saw the staff photocopying documents related to the investigation.
Speaking on the development, a former Minister of National Planning, Shamsudeen Usman, blamed the aides of the governor and the emir for alleged misunderstanding between the two leaders which is widely viewed in the state as background to the probe of the emirate council.
Mr. Usman commended the intervention of the acting president and the Sultan of Sokoto in the matter and urged the state government to accede to their pleas.
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