Bala Muhammad, a political ally of former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, is fighting a relentless battle to recover properties the state government claimed were illegally removed from the Kano State Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO) when Mr Mujammed was its managing director.
In October 2023, the state’s Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) obtained an order from a chief magistrate, Umma Kurawa, to seize the properties, pending the conclusion of an investigation of alleged sleaze at the commission.
A document seen by PREMIUM TIMES listed the items as 14 full trucks with bodies, six truck bodies, four new truck heads, one Mahindra 6005 tractor, one Sino truck Homan and one Maikano van. Also listed are 1,200 bags of raw material Hijeck Chukura, one Mahindra loader, 19 truck tyres without rims, 48 truck tyres with rims, one 300 KVA transformer, two mini tractors with bodies, and one plant generator JMG.
Others are two Howo, one Tata, one Hijet, one mini tractor body, one block moulding machine, one Lister generator and one rigger.
The state high court granted the order to seize the items after the state government arraigned Mr Muhammad and others before the court for the alleged theft of more than N4 billion at KASCO.
However, on 27 November 2024 in another suit Mr Muhammed filed, Justice Aisha Ya’u of Kano State High Court No. 10 ordered the police and the anti-corruption agency to withdraw from the warehouse premises.
However, the agency said it had filed a motion at the court protesting that it was not joined in the suit. The agency’s refusal to comply with the court order led to the police temporarily detaining its chairman, Muhuyi Magagi, last month.
The case against Muhammed
The office of the state’s attorney general had filed a nine-count charge accusing Mr Muhammad and his associates of diverting more than N4 billion from KASCO’s account into various bank accounts between August 2022 and April 2023.
The charge was based on a report by the anti-graft agency alleging that Mr Muhammad, who led KASCO under Mr Ganduje’s administration, conspired with others, including his son, to divert public funds.
“Sometime in August 2022 to 3rd April 2023 or thereabout, the sum of N4,67,290,742.00 (four billion, sixty-seven million, seven hundred and forty-two Naira) only were (was) credited into Kano State Agricultural Supply Company Ltd’s ( KASCO) Account No. 1014477161 domiciled in Zenith Bank Plc and Unity Bank Account No. 0005195864 from Kano State Federal Allocation Account No. 4968083012 domiciled in FCMB within Kano Judicial Division all in the name of grant, but the former managing director dishonestly misappropriated and converted the whole sum belonging to Kano State Government meant as a grant to the state-owned company (KASCO) to other accounts, including his accounts, the act which is an offence under section 308 punishable under section 309 of the Penal Code Law,” the PCACC said in the charges filed on 3 August 2023.
The report further stated that Mr Muhammad unlawfully transferred N20 million from a KASCO account domiciled with Zenith Bank into an FCMB personal account of Mu’azu Ahmad.
He was also accused of diverting N78 million into a business account belonging to Abubakar Bawuro under the pretence of supplying materials, which were never supplied, and another N30 million meant for fertiliser subsidy into a corporate account of the Ganduje Foundation.
Mr Muhammad denied the charges and contested the PCACC’s power to investigate corruption cases, saying only federal anti-corruption bodies have this power.
However, on 18 October 2023, the court ruled that PCACC could investigate, arrest, and refer a matter to the state’s attorney general for prosecution.
“Under section 15 (1) (a) and (b) of the state Anti-Corruption Enabling law, it shall have the power to receive and investigate any allegation of corrupt practices against any person and refer the matter to the attorney general of the state for necessary action”, the court had ruled.
The case is ongoing as the court has fixed 26 February for the presentation of witnesses in the case against Mr Muhammad and others.
Fight over properties
Meanwhile, Mr Muhammad, through his lawyer, Tahir Ibrahim, wrote to the police and PCACC, asking them to unseal the warehouse in compliance with Justice Ya’u’s order of November 2024.
The police complied and withdrew their officers from the property but the state’s anti-corruption agency did not, saying it was not joined in the suit from which the order emanated.
On 24 January, police officers from Abuja arrested the chairman of the anti-corruption agency, Mr Magagi, over his agency’s refusal to unseal the warehouse.
However, Mr Magagi was released the following day.
The commission’s lawyer, Zaharaddeen Kofar-Mata, told PREMIUM TIMES that the police accused Mr Magaji of illegally sealing off a private warehouse.
Mr Kofar-mata questioned the validity of the court order for the unsealing of the property.
“They lied to the court that they had resolved their differences with the anti-corruption commission and had the name of the agency struck out of the case. That was a deliberate act of obtaining default judgement. This Commission suspected that they connived with the legal section of the police, who refused to file any defence. When the default judgment was awarded, the Commission quickly filed a motion to re-join the matter and have the judgement set aside.
“Generally, the legal implication is that they cannot impose the judgement until that motion has been decided in one way or the other. The Commission, which is not a party to the judgement and which in law is the custodian and the current possessor of the seized properties, is not bound by the judgement,” Mr Kofar-Mata stated.
As of Friday, the anti-graft agency was still restricting access to the warehouse.
Mr Muhammad could not be reached by phone or through other contacts to comment on the issue.
Source: Premium Times