The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) Abuja Zonal Command has handed over documentation relating to 324 houses recovered for Kano state pensioners.
The handover of the houses, prompted by a final forfeiture order granted by Justice I.E. Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, was the result of the Commission’s successful investigations into an N4.1 billion Pension Trust Fund contributed by the pensioners to own houses, which had been fraudulently denied to them by two successive Kano State administrations.
The Commission investigated a petition filed by Concerned Kano State Workers and Pensioners alleging misappropriation of pension money in the state. According to the EFCC’s findings, the state government entered into a tripartite agreement with the Kano State Pension Trust Fund to build housing estates for a total of N41 billion (Forty One Billion Naira), with the Pension Trust Fund contributing N4.1 billion.
However, the pensioners’ contributions were used to build houses in three estates in Kano state: Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam Bandirawo, Sheikh Nasiru Kabara (Amana), and Sheikh Khalifa Ishaq Rabiu. Two former governors of the state fraudulently discounted and sold the houses to their cronies and associates, leaving the pension trustees with a low budget and unfinished houses.
The EFCC intervened and, following an investigation, petitioned for and obtained a final forfeiture order of the 324 properties to the Kano State Pension Fund Trustees.
While handing over the documents for the 324 properties worth N4.1 billion to the pensioners on Monday, March 18, 2024, the Abuja Zonal Commander of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE I Adeniyi Adebayo, assured them that the EFCC would continue to work hard to rid the country of fraudulent practices. Representatives of the Kano State Pension Board, Alhaji Hassan Muhammed Aminu, Kubra Ahmad Bichi, and Salisu Yakubu Abubakar, who accepted the documents on behalf of the workers and pensioners, expressed gratitude to the EFCC for assisting them in reclaiming their homes.