Kano state government says it would not meddle in the issue of a state official, Ali-Baba Agama-Lafiya caught defrauding clerics.
Agama-Lafiya, the Special Adviser on Religious Affairs to Mr Ganduje, was arrested three months ago by the state’s anti-corruption commission.
He was found guilty of diverting money amounting to millions of Naira meant to be disbursed to Clerics and Imams in Kano state who prayed against the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Mr Ganduje had on the 30th of July 2020, invited no fewer than 300 Imams and Islamic clerics to the state government’s house for intensive prayers aimed at solving the problem of insecurity in the north and to forestall the spread of Covid-19.
According to the state’s Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Muhammad Tahar, Ganduje directed the accused aide Mr Agama-Lafiya to pay each of the clerics that participated in the prayer session N50,000.
Agama-Lafiya gave them N5,000 instead of the instructed N50,000 and pocketed N45, 000 per head.
Kano state’s Anti-Corruption Commission was said to have swiftly arrested the governor’s aide and retrieved the money after receiving complaints from some of the defrauded victims.
Meanwhile, the state anti-graft agency led by Muhyi Magaji is yet to prosecute the accused aide after investigating the matter in August.
According to Mr. Magaji, it was more concerned to retrieve and return to those who were cheated instead of prosecuting the offenders in a court of law ”because we are doing it for the sake of Allah,” Mr Magaji said.
Neither has the state government take any action on the suspect.
Speaking to Premium Times on the issue, The Kano state commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba said the government has done the needful by not meddling in the activities of the anti-corruption commission.
According to him, ”The government didn’t take any action on the suspect because the anti-corruption commission didn’t recommend that the official should be penalized or sacked. They have done their work and nobody interfered on how it is supposed to be,” Mr Garba said.
Meanwhile, the suspect has confessed to deducting N45,000 from the money he was instructed to pay the Imans and Islamic Clerics.
He told Freedom Radio that his intention was to reach out to other clerics to benefit from the deducted N45,000.
According to him: “I did that to include more beneficiaries because there are those Imams that were not uninvited who prayed at homes and mosques who deserve to receive the money too, which is why I deducted the said amount.”
