Emir of Kano in double trouble as state lawmakers decide to probe him too

Assembly Speaker, Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, on Wednesday, May 10, set up an eight-man committee to investigate the Emir.

The decision was reached due to a petition raised by the lawmaker representing Nasarawa constituency, Ibrahim Ahmad Gama.

The legislators have accused Sanusi of spreading false information on Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s recent trip to China.

They also accused Sanusi’s emirate of approving and spending funds without the approval of the governor and the Assembly.

Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Muhyi Magaji Rimin-Gado told BBC that the Emir was being probed due to several complaints that money was being misappropriated.

Rimin-Gado said further that senior officials of the emir's palace had been summoned for questioning.

Sanusi recently criticized the Kano government for taking a $2 billion loan from China to finance a light rail project.

“We have governors, they go to China and spend one month on a tour and what do they come back with, MoU on debts,” the emir said on Wednesday, April 5, during a conference in Kaduna.

“China will lend you $1.8bn to build light rail. This light rail will be done by the rail workers from China. The trains will come from China. The engines will come from China. The labour comes from China. The driver is Chinese.

“At the end of the day, what do you benefit from it? Your citizen will ride on a train and when you ride on a train, in northern Nigeria, in a state like Kano or Katsina, where are you going to? You are not going to an industrial estate to work. You are not going to school? You are not going to the farm. You borrow money from China to invest in trains so that your citizens can ride on them and go for weddings and naming ceremonies,” he added.

Sanusi has also criticized the Federal Government for borrowing mindlessly adding that its current economic model would not work.

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Investigators however told the BBC that they have evidence of financial misconduct against the emir while denying that the probe was politically motivated.