A former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has denied media reports that he was being probed over fraudulent contract awards in the Federal Ministry of Defence, describing the reports as mischievous and untrue.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is said to have commenced probe of N35bn contracts for the procurement of arms involving some former defence ministers. Kwankwaso was mentioned as one of the former ministers.
But in a statement yesterday by his Principal Private Secretary, Muhammad Inuwa Ali, Kwankwaso said he was not the Minister of Defence when the alleged contracts were awarded in 2007.
The former lawmaker said he resigned as Minister of Defence in November 2006, to enable him contest the governorship ticket of the PDP in Kano State.
“In fact, the only position he was holding at that time was representing the Northwest region on the board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC); a position he voluntarily resigned from in 2010 because of his disagreement with the obvious corrupt practices in the way the commission was being administered.
“During the same period, Dr. Ganduje was in Ndjamena as Executive Secretary, Lake Chad Basin Commission. Therefore, there was no way either Sen. Kwankwaso or any of his aides at that material time could have been involved in the alleged defence contract scam.
“So the allegation that Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso and his aides – Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (the current Governor of Kano State, who was a special assistant of Sen. Kwankwaso at the Ministry of Defence) and Abba Yusuf (who was the personal assistant to Sen Kwankwaso in the same ministry) are being investigated for fraudulent contract awards in the Federal Ministry of Defence is both mischievous and untrue.
“One of the media outlets even alleged that Abba Yusuf and Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje collected N30 million and N50 million respectively. This is also untrue.
“We therefore draw the attention of all respected media organisations, particularly the print media, to desist from publishing such unsubstantiated stories which will not only tarnish the image of reputable individuals but also the media outlets themselves,” he said.
