Ahmad Tijjani Abdul
Ali Baba Fagge, the Special Adviser to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has run into trouble over alleged rip-off of 360 Islamic clerics that participated in a special prayer for Kano last week.
Fagge was said to have unilaterally slashed the allowances due to them, in gross violation of the governor’s order that pegged the sum at N50:000 per person.
The governor had last Thursday led 360 Islamic clerics, imams and other leaders for special supplication to Allah to save the state and the country from COVID-19.
Commenting on the alleged fleece, the supervising commissioner for Religious Affair, Dr Mohammad Tahir Baba Impossible, said the Governor’s directive was explicit that no single Kobo should be deducted from the fifty thousand naira.
Baba Impossible stressed that “the governor had directed that any ulama that attended the prayers should be given fifty thousand Naira,no Kobo should be deducted”.
Reacting to the alleged rip-off, Ali Baba Fagge, the Special Adviser on Religious Affair said the deduction was done to accomodate more clerics.
In his words “We want the money to go round ,so that more ulamas will benefit from the kind gesture,even though the governor was not aware of this development”.
Already, the Kano state public complaints and anti corruption agency on Thursday said it has opened investigations on a petition filed against the governor’s aide.
Barrister Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, the executive chairman of Kano Anti corruption Agency in an interview with a Kano private radio station monitored in Kano confirmed recieving complaints from some individuals alleging that the Special Adviser on religious Affairs slashed fifty-fifty thousand Naira stipends to ulamas that attended the national prayers.
In the Freedom Radio interview, the anti-graft boss said “the agency would investigate the matter and would not spare any person found guilty.”