The Arewa Renaissance Front (ARF), a political movement in Kano State, has asked Governor Abba Yusuf”s administration in Kano State to stop what it termed “several attempts to frame the immediate past Governor of the State and All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on unsubstantiated allegations of sleaze in order to cover up the Governor’s inability to meet up with the expectations of the people.”

In a statement released by its Secretary-General, Aminu Gawama, the group accused Governor Abba Yusuf of witch-hunting Ganduje through propaganda and state-owned institutions in order to divert the attention of the people of the state from their paralysing inefficiency and cluelessness that have plunged the ancient city of Kano, the commercial headquarters of the North, into a new theatre of absurdity.

The statement read in parts: “We at the Arewa Renaissance Front (ARF) are aware of the recent politically-motivated attacks on the person of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje.

“We note with concern that the attacks are overtly and covertly sponsored by the Kano State Government. Without a whiff of doubt, we know that the attacks on the person of Dr Ganduje are a diversionary tactic to prevent the people of Kano State and the general public at large from seeing the startling cluelessness and paralysing inefficiency of the Abba Yusuf-led administration, which has turned governance in the state into a comedy of errors.

“Kano people are asking: What has Governor Yusuf done to positively transform the state since his coming to power almost a year ago, despite the increased fiscal allocations accruing to the state from the federation account?

“It’s important to emphasise that the two judicial commissions of inquiry recently empanelled by the state government to probe the activities of former Governor Ganduje in office per alleged misappropriation of public assets and political violence are nothing but mere witch-hunting.

“One is left wondering why the Governor ordered the kangaroo commissions to probe only the activities of the Ganduje administration but conveniently and comfortably exonerated the administration of his godfather, Kwankwaso, from investigation. Does anyone need a soothsayer to know that it’s a wild goose chase meant to squander the resources of the state?

“In any case, Dr Ganduje is not afraid of being probed, as his records of activities during his tenure as Governor of Kano State are an open book for anyone to dissect and peruse.

“It must be stated, however, that such an investigation and probe must be carried out by impartial institutions like the EFCC and the ICPC and not the likes of the commissions handpicked by Governor Yusuf, whose final result has long been determined even before the probe begins: to give Dr Ganduje a bad name in order to hang it.

“We state that Dr Ganduje has nothing to hide, even as he is currently facing the arduous responsibility of repositioning the APC so that it can fulfil the social contract it entered into with Nigerians courtesy of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Tinubu administration,” the group stated.