Kano State has inaugurated a 12-man Judicial Commission of Inquiry on the Recovery of Misappropriated Public Properties and Assets to investigate all related land deals by the immediate past administration led by former governor Umar Abdullahi Ganduje.
The panel of inquiry which drew its membership from the judiciary, security, academia, civil society trade union, and public service, headed by Justice Faruk Lawan Adamu, was inaugurated Monday in Kano.
Presiding over the brief inauguration ceremony held in Court 3, Kano High Complex, Justice Faruk Lawan Adamu, chairman of the panel, while reading out the 10 terms of reference guiding the operations of the panel noted the panel chief task was to review the sale, disposal, and allocation of all government owned properties, institutional buildings including school buildings, and hospitals.
According to him, the panel was also charged with the task of reviewing the disposal and allocation of land designated as graveyards, and open lands or spaces within the Kano urban areas and other lands in other parts of the country.
The panel will also be reviewing the sale and disposal as well as allocation of all government – owned offices, houses, workshops and any other building and land belonging to the state and local governments anywhere and outside the state from May 29th, 2015 to May 29th, 2023, he said.
The panel was also mandated to provide a comprehensive inventory of all such properties, to determine the cost or value at which such sales, disposal pr allocation where made and also provide estimated current value of such properties.
” To determine the individuals, companies, agencies or entities to which such sale, disposal or allocations were made whether such properties have changed hands and if so to whom; in adding to determine the propriety of such sale, disposal or allocation and made appropriate recommendations,” Adamu said.
” To determine if any abuse have been perpetrated in the process of such sale, disposal or allocations and identify the officials or persons responsible for such abuses; as well as to determine the role of MDAs, or government officials in the process of such deals breaches relevant Kano state laws and regulations.”
Adamu further disclosed that the panel also has the responsibility to recover any farmlands belonging to members of the public and institutions found to have been improperly sold, disposed off or allocated to individuals, companies or other entities.
He noted that in discharging it duties, the panel will be guided by fairness, justice, and will not witch hunt anyone, as it on a fact finding mission and on expiration of the time given to him will be reporting back to the state government.
