Anti-corruption officials in Kano have informed Peoples Gazette that Abdullahi Ganduje is the target of a fresh investigation after a stockpile of stolen fertilisers, grains and farming equipment was discovered in a secret warehouse in the state.

The Kano Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) said its detectives are looking into how more than N4 billion was stolen and spent to buy the items that were later hidden in a warehouse in Kumbotso Local Government Area.

Officials found Toyota Hilux trucks, heavy-duty trucks, tractors, cement bags, fertilisers, tyres, soybeans, and maize, among other items, when they raided a facility run by the state’s agricultural department in a remote village, about 30 kilometres south of Kano City.

The PCACC, which earlier this month launched an investigation into Mr Ganduje’s dollar-stuffing video, has now detained and arrested at least five people connected to the storage, according to sources at the PCACC who briefed our reporter under anonymity.

“Former governor Ganduje is already linked to the fraud,” an official said.

Mr Ganduje, Kano governor from May 2015 to May 2023, infamously appeared in a series of videos released by a Nigerian newspaper, Daily Nigerian, in 2018 of him receiving a ‘kickback’ in dollars.

The governor denied the video was “cloned” and threatened a lawsuit against its publisher.

The state anti-corruption agency had said it had invited the former governor to appear before the commission over the matter, which it said followed its independent verification of the video as authentic.

The commission had previously arrested Idris Saleh, a former commissioner of works and infrastructure who served under the administration under Mr Ganduje, over an alleged N1 billion fraud.

Muhuyi Magaji, the head of the Kano anti-corruption department, listed some of the confiscated items from the warehouse to the media shortly after the operation on Saturday.

Officials said those who were arrested over the illegal stockpile were linked to Mr Ganduje, some of whom received funds from state coffers during Mr Ganduje’s administration.

Efforts to speak to Muyi Magaji, the spokesperson for the Kano anti-corruption agency, and Mr Ganduje’s spokesperson, Abba Anwar, were unsuccessful. 

Mr Magaji did not respond to calls and text messages sent to his known phone number, while Mr Anwar said he would get in touch later.

A spokesman for Mr Ganduje did not immediately return a request for comments. The former governor has been a key ally of President Bola Tinubu, who struggled to make him a cabinet minister.