Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, born in 1949 in Ganduje village, Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State, served as Governor of Kano State for two consecutive terms from 29 May 2015 to 29 May 2023 on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, having previously been twice Deputy Governor (1999-2003 and 2011-2015) under Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. After his governorship, on 3 August 2023 the APC National Executive Committee appointed him National Chairman of the ruling party following the resignation of Abdullahi Adamu; he resigned the chairmanship on 27 June 2025 citing health reasons, with credible reports (Daily Trust, Vanguard, SaharaReporters) indicating the resignation followed party pressure. The defining reputational episode of his political career is the October 2018 'Gandollar' video series published by Daily Nigerian newspaper (publisher: Jaafar Jaafar), which appeared to show him receiving wads of US dollar notes from contractors and stuffing them inside his babanriga (traditional Hausa gown). Daily Nigerian reported the videos as part of a contractor-led sting operation alleging cumulative bribery of approximately $5 million across multiple disbursements, of which approximately $230,000 was captured on camera. The first clips were published on Sunday 14 October 2018; further clips were released through that week. Ganduje publicly insisted the videos were 'doctored' and 'cloned' to portray him in a bad light, and sued Daily Nigerian and Jafar Jafar for defamation seeking N3 billion in damages. The Kano State House of Assembly set up an investigative committee, before whom Jafar Jafar testified that the videos were authentic, but a Kano State High Court ex-parte injunction granted by Justice A.T. Badamasi restrained the committee, and the committee never submitted final findings before the assembly's term ended in July 2023. In July 2023 the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), under Chairman Barrister Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado, publicly confirmed that an independent forensic analysis had determined the dollar videos were not doctored; nonetheless, in March 2024 a Federal High Court held that the PCACC lacked the statutory power to probe the dollar video, and Ganduje himself had earlier asked a Kano court (June 2023) to restrain the EFCC from probing him over the matter. The dollar video has therefore never produced a formal criminal charge against Ganduje. The flagship pending criminal matter is the Kano State Government's case at the Kano State High Court before Justice Amina Adamu Aliyu (Court 7, Audu Bako Secretariat Complex). The charge sheet (originally 8 counts) was filed in early April 2024 against Ganduje, his wife Dr. Hafsat Umar Ganduje, his son Umar Abdullahi Umar, his former aide Abubakar Sahabo Bawuro, businessman Jibrilla Muhammad, and three corporate co-defendants — Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General Enterprises Limited — alleging the eight counts of bribery, conspiracy, abuse of office, criminal misappropriation, and diversion of public funds amounting to $413,000 (specifically $200,000 allegedly received on 10 January 2016 from contract beneficiaries and $213,000 allegedly received on 10 February 2017 as kick-back on the Kantin Kwari textile market project) plus N1,376,000,000 (N1.376 billion) alleged to have been converted between September 2020 and March 2021 through a Safari Textiles Ltd account, ostensibly earmarked for procurement of face masks and hospital equipment during the COVID-19 period. Several attempts to arraign Ganduje in person stalled in April and May 2024 because of service-of-process disputes (charges initially filed at High Court 5, reassigned to High Court 7 under Justice Aliyu after the original judge stepped aside). Ganduje publicly objected on jurisdiction, arguing in an April 2024 statement that 'only the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission' could lawfully charge him for the alleged offences, and that the Kano State Government's prosecution was constitutionally incompetent. On 11 July 2024, with Ganduje, his wife and his co-defendants all absent from court, Justice Aliyu entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of each defendant, declined the prosecution's prayer for a bench warrant (citing political tensions in Kano State and the risk of mayhem), and ordered trial to proceed in absentia. The matter was thereafter adjourned to 23 and 24 October 2024 for hearing of preliminary objections and the main charge. The charges were re-filed and amended (per Punch and Daily Trust reporting) so that by 2025 the operative count was 11 charges of bribery, conspiracy, misappropriation and diversion. On 13 May 2025 Justice Aliyu dismissed the preliminary objections of Ganduje and his wife as 'incompetent and lacking merit', ruled the charges filed on 13 May 2024 competent to proceed, issued a summons to the sixth defendant Lamash Properties Limited, and adjourned for hearing to 30-31 July 2025. The Court of Appeal subsequently threw out Ganduje's jurisdictional appeal. As at the most recent reporting in February 2026 (Sahara Reporters, Leadership, Daily Trust, allAfrica, FRCN, 21st Century Chronicle), Justice Aliyu had adjourned the matter to 15 April 2026 for hearing of preliminary objections and all pending applications. A separate criminal prosecution at the Kano State High Court (Court 2) before Justice Yusuf Ubale was filed by the Kano State Government on 13 October 2025 against Ganduje, his sons Umar Abdullahi Umar and Muhammad Abdullahi Umar, his former Special Adviser Abubakar Sahabo Bawuro, former Nigerian Shippers' Council Executive Secretary Hassan Bello, lawyer Adamu Aliyu-Sanda, and Dala Inland Dry Port Limited — a 10-count charge of criminal conspiracy, misappropriation of public funds, breach of trust, and conflict of interest alleging that the defendants conspired to fraudulently transfer 80% of Dala Inland Dry Port shares (including the state's 20% equity) to a 'City Green Enterprise' entity and that over N4.49 billion in public funds was siphoned under cover of infrastructure development at the dry port. Hearing was set for 17 November 2025; in January 2026 Justice Ubale refused the Kano State Government's request for a bench warrant on the dry port matter as premature. Anti-corruption groups including HEDA and CACOL petitioned the EFCC in November 2024 demanding Ganduje's arrest and prosecution, citing the 2018 dollar video, the alleged 44-LGA diversion of N57.43 billion identified in a Kano State 2023 audit, and the N1.38 billion Safari Textiles allegation; the EFCC has not, as of May 2026, filed a parallel federal prosecution. Ganduje has consistently denied wrongdoing throughout, has characterised the prosecutions as politically motivated by the Yusuf administration's anti-Ganduje stance, and has insisted through counsel that any federal corruption allegations against him would be the exclusive remit of the Attorney General of the Federation and the EFCC. No conviction has been entered in any matter as of May 2026, and Ganduje has not been imprisoned. Ganduje's political career has nonetheless been substantially curtailed: he is currently inactive in elective politics, has lost the APC chairmanship, and remains under the cloud of two separate Kano State High Court prosecutions.