FORMER Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje said he could have slapped his predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, had he met him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Friday, June 9.

Ganduje and Kwankwaso, on Friday evening, met with President Bola Tinubu separately over the demolition crisis in Kano and other troubles currently facing the state.

---

READ ALSO:
Akpabio has been endorsed as Senate President — Ganduje

Sanusi: Ganduje replies Kwankwaso, says new emirates are permanent

Ganduje reacts as Kano governor-elect issues two advisories in one week

Incoming administration will review Sanusi’s dethronement- Kwankwaso

---

“I know he is in the building, but we have not met. Probably if we met, maybe I could have slapped him,” Daily Trust reported the former governor boasting.

The ICIR reports that less than a week after assuming office, the state governor Yusuf Kabir Abba (also known as Abba Gida-Gida) carried out his threat to pull down structures built on public land during Ganduje’s administration.

In the company of the state commissioner of police, Muhammed Gumel, the governor reportedly supervised the demolition of a three-storey building with 90 shops.

Shop owners wailed as hoodlums made away with their goods while the exercise lasted. 

The police in the state said it arrested 57 of the thieves.

Peeved by the demolition, Ganduje, Kwankwaso, the new governor, and their supporters have been exchanging tantrums over what residents said threatened the peace in the state.

Unconfirmed reports claim Tinubu ordered a stop to the exercise when briefed about the danger the action posed to the state.

The ICIR reports that the new governor is a political godson to Kwankwaso.

Kwankwaso’s party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), defeated Ganduje’s All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election in Kano State.

Kwankwaso was the presidential candidate of the NNPP in the February 25 presidential election. He came fourth in the poll.

Ganduje was deputy to Kwankwaso during his second term in office as Kano governor, between 2011 and 2015. The two leaders soon became rivals shortly after Ganduje took over power.

In a report on May 30, The ICIR reported how the new government vowed to revisit the murder case against Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hassan Ado Doguwa.

During Ganduje’s last days in office, the state ministry of justice cleared Doguwa of any wrongdoing in killings and destructions that greeted the presidential and National Assembly election in  Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal Constituency, which the lawmaker represents.

The report also disclosed how the governor sacked the state Pilgrim’s Welfare Board and replaced its eight members less than 24 hours after assuming office.

In his inaugural speech on May 29, after taking the oath of office, Yusuf vowed to review many of his predecessor’s decisions.