For returning N9.9 million mistakenly transferred to his account, a Point of Sales (POS) operator in Kano metropolis, Mohammed Abdulrahman (37), has been rewarded with N500,000.
It was gathered that a businessman at the Dawanau grain market in Kano metropolis, on December 21, 2023, transferred N10 million instead of N10,000 to Abdulrahman.
Abdulrahman, on realising the mistake, reported to the police.
Police spokesman, Abdullahi Kiyawa, said it took three months of investigation to identify the person who made the transfer. And yesterday, the businessman was refunded his N9.9 million.
A businessman at Dawanau grain market in the Kano metropolis, who mistakenly transferred N10 million, instead of N10,000 to a Point of Sale (POS) Operator, has got his money back.
The trader on December 21, last year transferred N10 million to 37-year-old Mohammed Sani Abdulrahman, who operates a POS, thinking that he transferred N10,000.
The POS also said he did not know that he was paid the sum of N10 million.
However, upon realising an excess of nine million, nine hundred and ninety thousand naira (N9,990,000:00) in his POS business account, he reported the transaction to the police.
Police spokesman, Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, said it took police detectives three months of investigation to identify the person who made the mobile transfer.
Kiyawa, a Superintendent of Police (SP), disclosed that the police, led by Abdulwahab Zubairu of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), on March 14, 2024, identified the businessman (name withheld) as the rightful owner of the excess money.
The customer was paid on Thursday, through his account, the sum of N9,990,000:00 -his N10 million, short of the N10,000 he had earlier collected.
Kano Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Usaini Gumel, commended the POS operator for his honesty and good conduct.
The businessman, who admitted a mistake, thanked the POS operator and the police for recovering his money.
“The government would not hesitate to invoke sanction where necessary,” Yusuf warned.
The Governor said: “The committee members were carefully selected and constituted.
“And I am determined to return the state to the path of progress and prosperity.
“Local government councils have important role to play in this journey. You must embrace all and work hard to support our administration in fulfilling our campaign promises.
“You should be leaders prepared to exhibit exemplary conduct, as this administration has zero tolerance towards unbecoming behaviours.
“We will maintain close vigilance on the conduct of each and everyone of you and will not hesitate to invoke sanctions or suspension.
“In line with the constitution, your tenure is three months. And at the end of the three months and in conformity with your performance, will determine the next line of action.”
The European Union (EU), in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has pledged to enrol and skill 1.5 million children, youths and adolescents in Jigawa, Katsina and Kano states.
Michael Banda, Senior Education Manager, UNICEF, Kano Field Office, made the pledge at a multi- sectoral key stakeholders meeting on education and youths empowerment project on Wednesday in Kano.
He said the programme was aimed at increasing the number of girls and boys benefiting from safe, inclusive, relevant learning and skills development opportunities in Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.
Banda said the four-year programme which commenced from October 2023 to August 2027, would cover Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.
“The programme operation is categorised into three main outputs involving strengthened education governance and learning, expanded access to safe and inclusive learning environment and giving quality, continuous learning and enhanced competencies.”
The education manager pointed out that in Nigeria, many children between seven and 14 could not read or write simple sentence.
“Our aim is for them to get skill that will make them competitive, marketable and self-sustaining, to start a business.
“We are also looking at Integrated Qur’anic School because we have Qur’anic schools that do an integrated curriculum which includes literacy and numeracy beyond the religious education.
“We are going to catch everyone, including those who do not have space in the formal school,” he said.
Banda said that Kano State had been selected to be one of the top beneficiaries of the newly introduced European Union-funded education and empowerment programme in Nigeria.
According to him, Kano will have the lion share of the project because of its population and the number of out-of-school children.
He said that EU was not only concentrating its resources in Kano, but in Northwest, Northeast and other states in Nigeria.
The UNICEF education manager added that the EU was an all-weather partner for UNICEF and various states in ensuring that all children accessed quality education.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Umar Doguwa, commended the development partners for the gesture.
He restated the state government’s commitment to invest in education sector.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said its troops deployed in Durbunde in Takai Local Government Area of Kano State have arrested a 35-year-old high-profile kidnapper, Isah Abdul.
It said Abdul was arrested at about 6:30pm on February 19, after a well-coordinated operation.
NAF’s spokesperson, Air Vice Marshall (AVM) Edward Gabkwet, revealed this in a statement yesterday.
Gabkwet said Abdul was arrested “following credible intelligence on the hideout of the notorious kidnapper and his boys who were responsible for several kidnapping incidents in the area.”
According to him, preliminary investigation had since revealed that Abdul and his gang were responsible for the abduction of one Yakubu Ibrahim Tagaho, popularly known as “Sarkin Noman Gaya,” on 6 April 2023, from his residence in Tagaho Village in Takai Local Government Area.
He said Tagaho was released a month later after a ransom of three million naira was paid to the kidnappers.
Gabkwet said: “In December 2023, the same criminal abducted two sisters and three others in the same village and released them after collecting a huge ransom.
“He is also responsible for several other kidnapping activities as he has strong ties to other known kidnapping gangs like the Danbul Fulaku gang that also operates in Takai local government area.”
The NAF’s spokesperson said that Abdul was undergoing investigation in the custody of the NAF personnel, and would soon be handed over to “appropriate authorities for further proceedings.”
It took a swift response by operatives of the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) to burst 10 warehouse owners identified to be hoarding essential commodities and foodstuff in Kano. The operation, which came at the same time traders and residents of the ancient city were literally up in arms against the dire economic challenges that were unleashing unbearable hunger and starvation, is seen by many as a sad tale of self-inflicted hardship and hypocrisy. FANEN IHYONGO reports from Kano.
The past few days have been tension-soaked, particularly in Kano, in the Northwest. Residents of the ancient city have been literally up in arms, challenging the worsening economic hardship in the country, which, according to them, made them and, indeed, most Nigerians, unable to fend for their families due to the skyrocketing cost of food commodities and other essentials.
Even business operators in Kano took the frustration and anger a little further when, a few days ago, they threatened to close down markets in the metropolis. For instance, the Singer Market Traders’ Association, one of the largest sections of the Kano business hub, threatened to shut down the entire section of the market.
The market union, The Nation learnt, has been lamenting undue pressure on its members from the government and the public over the unstable and hyper-cost of food items and provisions, saying they prefer to keep their goods in stores.
Rimin-Gado was said to have reminded the aggrieved traders that the business community has no authority to needlessly embark on actions that could exacerbate hunger and frustration in the state. He advised the traders and dealers of essential commodities to make their goods available to the market for people to buy at stable prices.
But as it turned out, the Kano traders and dealers were not the only ones that needed to be pacified. Their frustrations and lamentations struck a chord with a more critical stakeholder-the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero.
The highly revered royal father lent his voice to the growing outcry over the prevailing food crisis. He specifically requested that the First Lady, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, communicate to the President, the dire economic challenges facing Nigerians.
That was when the President’s wife paid him a courtesy visit to his palace in Kano. The monarch seized the opportunity of the visit to express his desire for the First Lady to personally convey his message from the palace to the President -her husband.
“Although we have several means of communicating to the government on our needs and requests, your way and means is the surest way to tell the President the actual happenings in the country,” the Emir of Kano said.
Mrs. Tinubu was in Kano to commission a multi-purpose hall named after her at the Faculty of Law, Maryam Abacha American University Kano campus.
The Nation gathered that the Emir’s message to Tinubu was a re-echo of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s plea for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene and alleviate the suffering of less privileged Nigerians who are the most hit by food insecurity. Governor Yusuf, who noted that the masses were starving, said he would personally and officially ask the president to roll out programmes that would address hunger in Kano state.
He spoke during a meeting with members of the business community in the state at Africa House, Kano.
“I will personally go and ask President Tinubu to intervene and check the prevailing hunger situation in Kano State, to save our people from starvation. The situation has become so serious that the Federal Government must wade in to get the people out of the predicament.
“We know that other parts of the country are experiencing the same thing, but we will make a case for Kano State, being our constituency,” Governor Kabir Yusuf told Kano traders who were threatening to protest by shutting down their shops.
However, in a sad turn of events, 10 Kano warehouse owners identified as hoarders of food commodities while residents of the ancient city were starving and lamenting their frustration over food scarcity amid rising prices, were busted and sealed by the Kano Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC).
Operatives of the Commission were said to have stormed the Dawaunu International Grain Market, Kantin Kwari Textile Market and Singer Grocery Market, sealing 10 warehouses identified to be hoarding essential commodities and foodstuff in the face of food scarcity troubling Nigerians.
The goods confiscated in the sealed warehouses are worth hundreds of millions of Naira, it was learnt. The operation was as a result of intelligence gathering by a special committee set up by the Commission to identify warehouses where foodstuff and essential commodities were being hoarded to be sold at exorbitant prices to the public.
However, no arrest was made during the operation as owners of the affected warehouses reportedly went into hiding upon hearing that agents of the Commission were coming to raid their stores.
However, while briefing newsmen in Kano, Muhuyi vowed that the owners of the warehouses would be identified and sanctioned according to appropriate laws. According to him, already, the offenders have already been invited to the anti-graft commission to face charges before the court for their illegal roles that are having negative impacts on the masses.
His words: “As you can see, the Kano State PCACC has made true its promise that we are going to embark on a fight against hoarding of essential commodities in the state.
“We started last Thursday and we have made a significant impact towards stopping the instant rise in the price of essential commodities. It was such that within a week, rice had jumped from N52,000 to N61,000. From what we have done so far, we are certain that there is an impact. From here we are going to the market to ascertain the situation.
“Firstly, we were able to stop the instant increase in prices of the commodities and secondly we have the belief that if we sustain the tempo, we will be able to bring down the prices from where they have gotten to. As you can see now, we are going around the warehouses and we met a lot of issues which after we go back to the office we are going to digest.”
Muhuyi said one fundamental problem was that in each store the Commission’s operatives entered, they claimed to be the World Food Programme Store.
“We wonder if the world food programme will starve the country while taking the food somewhere else,” he said, adding, “You can see, I was told that the price of maize has jumped from N30,000 to N60,000. So, you see, it’s a 100 per cent increase. This is unacceptable.”
Continuing, the Kano PCACC boss said: “You can see these stores; there are hundreds of millions of Naira worth of hoarded commodities. We are taking over the stores now and we are going to make some arrests because this will not be tolerated. This is not a market, but a warehouse. We have activated our intelligence mechanism and have come up with reports on where and how they are hoarding it.”
We’ve reduced food prices -Kano traders
However, some traders at the Kano essential commodities market, popularly known as the Singer Market, on Monday, announced their resolve to reduce the prices of food commodities.
“The spaghetti that we sold at N11,500 or N11,700 in the market is now sold for N12,800 in companies. Sugar in the company is sold N72, 000, but we sold it for N70,000. Rice is sold at N65, 700 now, but we sold it at 57,000 to 60, 000,” one of the market leaders stated penultimate Monday.
The Chairman of the marketers, Ibrahim Danyaro, told reporters about the price reduction shortly after a meeting with the Chairman of the Kano State Public Compliant and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhuyi Magaji Rimin-Gado.
Danyaro said they currently sell food commodities at prices less than company prices. He also vowed to weed out those hoarding foodstuff in Kano markets.
The decision by the traders followed the public outcry over the soaring prices of essential commodities and the high cost of living in the country.
The market leader also vowed to assist the Commission to fish out bad eggs among those who are hoarding goods and arbitrarily increasing their prices.
He said they were at the Commission to disassociate themselves from those hoarding food commodities to sell in upcoming months at exorbitant rates.
“We have come forward to the Commission with our evidence and the Commission is convinced that we are not involved in hoarding.
“The rising price of commodities, which is recorded in the market, was not arbitrarily done by our members. This development is brought about by the companies. And we suggested measures to address the situation at hand.
“One of them is for the commission to hold similar meetings with the manufacturers of these commodities to find out the reasons for the inflation of prices.
“We have expressed our resolve to cooperate with the Commission to bring down prices of commodities to bring succour to the people. However, this, we can only do with the stocks we have at hand now. The prices we sold our stock in the market is not up to the current company prices,” Danyaro said.
Hamisu Rabi’u, another leader of the traders, assured the residents of maintaining the old prices of the stocks at hand against the high prices being experienced at various markets across the state.
“We will ensure that our stock at hand won’t go beyond the company prices for the sake of our people. We agree to run at a loss than to throw our people into difficulties,” he promised.
The Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Muhuyi Rimingado commended the traders for their readiness to contribute by reducing the prices of their commodities.
A team of policemen in Kano state has arrested three suspects for the murder of a 14-year-old boy, Abdullahi Sani.
The police said that the victim, the suspects’ neighbour’s son, was stabbed severally in the neck.
It was gathered that the suspects, after killing the young Abdullahi, still demanded N4 million ransom cash from his father.
Police spokesman, Abdullahi Haruna, in a statement, said: “Investigation led to the arrest of the principal suspect, Ismail Adamu, aged 22, of Hotoron Fulani.
“In furtherance to the investigation, the said Ismail Adamu confessed to have conspired with one Risi of Mariri Quarters Kano and kidnapped the victim.
“The suspect further revealed that they took the victim to Sabuwar Zara Village where they stabbed him in his neck and threw him inside a soak-away at an uncompleted building in Sabuwar Zara Quarters Kano, and later contacted the father and demanded four million naira for his release.”
Haruna, a Superintendent of Police (SP) disclosed that the crime scene was visited by police operatives where the deceased‘s body was removed and taken to the Abdullahi Wase Specialists Hospital, Kano, where it was deposited.
He said: “Discreet investigation led to the arrest of two other suspects; Musa Usman, aged 17 years old, of Hotoron Fulani Quarters Kano, and Abdullahi Usman, aged 20 years old, of the same address who assisted the principal suspect in negotiating for ransom on a mobile phone.”
Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Usaini Gumel, said the suspects will be charged to court upon completion of the investigation.
Stating reasons for the revocation, he said it due to non-compliance with the laws of the Board and defamation of character and abusing Director in the office of Executive Secretary.
It was gathered that the Board has been receiving complaints on the companies from the Association of Kano State Downloaders (KADA).
It was alleged that the owner of the twi companies Hajiya Aisha Amart used some security personnel to extort money following cries her fines have been very high.
The secretary claimed the Board has severally invited the owner of the companies to sort out all the problems but but she declined..
Security measures have been put in place in Kano State ahead of today’s visit of the First Lady, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu.
Sanusi Bature, the Director-General of Media and Publicity to Governor Abba Yusuf, dropped the hint yesterday, said the President’s wife will during her visit, inaugurate the Faculty of Law Building named after her at the Maryam Abacha University, Kano.
Bature said: “Adequate security arrangements have been made to ensure hitch-free activities during the visit by the First Lady.”
According to him, the state government, alongside the police, had drafted a compressive security network on how to provide the required security at each of the places that the first lady would visit.
He urged residents of the state to conduct themselves peacefully and come out en masse to receive the First Lady.
Bature explained that the state government and security agencies were working round the clock to provide a “peaceful atmosphere” for the important visitor and her entourage.
The university Deputy Registrar, Information and Public Relations Unit, Sa’idu Abdullahi Nayaya, announced the immediate suspension of the lecturer, whose name was withheld, in a statement on Wednesday, February 7.
A video showing students of the university being subjected to corporal punishment for lateness and other minor offences in their classes had gone viral.
The university management said the punishments included frog jump.
“Viral video on students maltreatment: The staff in question after the suspension would face the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee for further action.
“The management is hereby assuring parents and guardians and the general public that the welfare and safety of the students are topmost and any breach by whosoever way will not be tolerated and go unpunished.’
“The immediate suspension of the lecturer is part of our efforts to addressing this situation and ensure that the welfare and rights of our students are upheld,” the statement said, emphasising that the institution was committed to maintaining a conducive learning environment for all students.
The Students Union Government (SUG) of the institution commended the university management for the action against the erring lecturer.
The SUG president, Adamu Habibu Ado, urged all the students to remain calm as the decisions made by the management, according to him, were taken in the best interest of the university community.
He said: “It is imperative for students to abide by the rules and regulations set by the school management, as we strive to uphold the highest standards of character and learning.”
