The CCB and the EFCC recently launched investigations against the Kano State anti-graft boss, Mr Magaji, who was investigating Mr Ganduje for alleged corruption before the former Kano State governor became APC chair.
A civil society organisation, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), has accused Abdullahi Ganduje of exerting his influence on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to "intimidate" Muhuyi Magaji, chairperson, Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission.
But the spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said Monday that the allegation was untrue.
An aide to Mr Ganduje also denied the allegation saying: "APC national chairman does not interfere with the operations of government agencies let alone anti-corruption institutions."
Mr Ganduje, the immediate-past governor of Kano State, is the current national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Messrs Ganduje and Magaji have been having a running battle due to the latter's attempt to investigate the former over corruption allegations.
Mr Ganduje as Kano governor would later sack Mr Magaji from office as chairperson, Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission.
But upon assumption of office as Kano governor in May, Abba Yusuf, in obedience to a subsisting court order, reinstated Mr Magaji as the state's anti-corruption chairman.
Mr Yusuf won the Kano State governorship election in March on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), defeating Mr Ganduje's anointed candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, of the APC.
Following Mr Magaji's reinstatement, he reopened Mr Ganduje's investigation.
Mr Ganduje, while being governor, was seen in a viral video receiving wads of dollars from a contractor and pocketing them in his flowing gown.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and EFCC launched investigations against Mr Magaji over alleged breach of code of conduct, leading to allegation of using federal might to stifle local investigations.
Alarm
In a statement Saturday, HEDA chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, said Mr Magaji is being targeted for daring to probe "grand corruption allegations" involving Mr Ganduje who recently assumed office as APC's national chairman.
"All these actions and discoveries have prompted the former governor (Mr Ganduje) to target the Chairman of the Kano Commission, using his current position as the National Chairman of the ruling party to intimidate the Federal government agencies to help in squeezing the Kano anti-corruption agency," the anti-corruption activist stated.
Mr Suraju recalled that the Kano anti-corruption agency had enjoyed a collaborative relationship with the EFCC and the CCB over the years in tackling graft.
However, the EFCC and the CCB have both sent out letters to the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission, requesting information claiming to be investigating the commission, the HEDA boss
said.
He wondered why federal government anti-corruption agencies have shied away from investigating Mr Ganduje and other members of his cabinet "severally accused of corruption". He counted a petition written against Mr Ganduje's wife by her son as one of the corruption complaints ignored by the EFCC.
According to the HEDA chairman, Mr Ganduje is flexing his influence as a ruling party chairman by deploying the federal anti-corruption agencies to do his "hatchet job" aimed at Mr Magaji.
Copies of the letters from the EFCC and CCB addressed to Mr Magaji, and seen by PREMIUM TIMES, requested for several financial transactions of the Kano anti-corruption agency while Mr Magaji held sway.
In a letter dated 8 August, the EFCC requested Mr Magaji to release his commission's director of finance and accounts for interrogations at the federal agency in Abuja.
"Details of total funds released to your office by the office of the Accountant General of Kano State from 2019 to 2021 fiscal year," the EFCC letter signed by Mukhtar Bello requested among other things.
The CCB in its letter dated 14 August, requested Mr Magaji to furnish the bureau with his letter of appointment.
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The bureau in its letter signed off by Gwimi S.P, also asked the Kano anti-corruption boss to supply it with his "salary pay slips from July 2020 to August 2023."
HEDA blamed President Bola Tinubu for laying the "foundation for Ganduje's audacity with his support for (Godswill) Akpabio to emerge as Senate President, appointment of former governors under EFCC investigations as ministers and finally, Ganduje as party chairman."
Allegations are untrue
Reacting to the allegations, the EFCC spokesperson, Mr Uwujaren, said, "The invitation letter explicitly stated the reasons for the invite. The Commission (EFCC) is unwilling to be drawn into any speculation that borders on fallacy."
Veronica Kato, the spokesperson for the chairman of CCB, Isah Mohammed, a law professor, said she could not comment on the issue.
"I advise you to write to the chairman (of CCB) concerning the allegation," Ms Veronica told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.
Mr Ganduje's aide who pleaded anonymity noted that "the CCB and EFCC are independent institutions that cannot be influenced by an individual."
