The court also restrained them from arresting Ganduje’s family members or any appointee who served in his administration.
The Kano Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on Tuesday discharged the ex parte order of injunction shielding former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, his family members and political associates from prosecution for corruption.
Ganduje is the current Acting National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
In July 2023, a Federal High Court in Kano restrained the Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission and other security operatives from harassing, arresting, inviting, or detaining Ganduje.
The court also restrained them from arresting Ganduje’s family members or any appointee who served in his administration.
The presiding judge, Justice A. M. Liman, gave the directive on July 7, 2023.
Ganduje had approached the court asking for a perpetual restraining order to declare his invitation in connection to a video showing him stuffing bales of dollar bills said to be a bribe inside the pocket of his attire.
But the order was challenged by the Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission on Tuesday.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) who led Mr. Umar Fari for the state government submitted that the action was incompetent on the ground that since the immunity inured in favour of the former governor had expired, it cannot be extended by any court to shield him from arrest, investigation and prosecution if there exists a prima facie case that he has engaged in corrupt practices.
Furthermore, Mr. Falana submitted that the Federal High Court lacks the power to grant the request of the former governor to shield his family members and political associates numbering over 1,000 state commissioners, heads of statutory agencies and local government council officials from arrest, investigation and prosecution for corruption.
In its judgment delivered on Tuesday, the Kano Judicial Division of the Federal High Court discharged the ex parte order of injunction except as it relates to the allegation that former Governor Ganduje had received a bribe of $5 million from a contractor.
The trial judge, Justice Liman, ruled that the issue of the video of the $5 million bribe is a federal offence that cannot be probed by the state anti-graft commission.
The judge, however, agreed with the submission of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Falana for the anti-graft commission, that the Federal High Court lacks the jurisdictional competence to investigate allegations of corruption levelled against former Governor Ganduje, his family members and political associates.
In his reaction to the judgment, Mr. Falana disclosed that he had been instructed by the anti-corruption commission to appeal against the decision of the Federal High Court on the $5 million videotape.
The human rights lawyer said that "the $5 million involved in the bribery scandal was allegedly collected by a sitting Kano state governor from a contractor who was handling a project for the Kano State government.
“To that extent, the Federal High Court erred seriously in law as the allegations disclosed against Dr. Ganduje pertain to state offences and have no element of a federal offence whatsoever."
The then-Kano State governor, Ganduje was caught on camera receiving bales of dollar notes from a contractor and stuffing them in the pocket of his ‘babanriga’ attire.
Upon his leaving office in May 2023, the state’s anti-corruption commission asked Mr Ganduje to appear before it to clear his name on the scandal, but he declined the invitation.
He rushed to the Federal High Court and obtained an ex parte order.
The Federal High Court granted an order which restrained the Kano State Anti-Corruption Commission from investigating Ganduje, his family members, and political lieutenants pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The order was subsequently challenged by the state anti-corruption agency.