Abba Kabir Yusuf, Governor of Kano State, on Sunday, fired back at Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, his predecessor in office, asking him to brace up to answer to his numerous sins during his eight years in office, where he practically plundered the state and destroyed its image through his numerous acts of massive corruption.

Yusuf, who emerged governor on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), founded by Rabiu Kwankwaso, Ganduje’s predecessor, has not hidden his anger over how the former governor allegedly ran the state, had mounted an onslaught against some of the outcomes, including demolishing some of the buildings allegedly belonging to him.

The NNPP governor, recently upped the ante, when he indicated his interest to drag the former governor, currently the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court on account of corruption and to recover some of the state’s resources he was accused of pillaging.

But Ganduje, in laughing off the move, accused the governor of indolence in a statement by Edwin Olofu, his spokesman, accusing him (Yusuf) of shifting public glare from the fact that there was nothing on ground in the state to justify the sharp increase in its statutory allocations since the inception of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

“Rather than join issues with my traducers in Kano over the trumped-up charges levelled against me, I would implore them to redirect their energies towards easing the plights of our people in Kano. They still have the opportunity to revert to my blueprint for the sustainable growth and development of Kano State. It is not yet late in the day for them to emulate my developmental strides. They can still salvage the situation as my tenure was devoid of any wrongdoings., Ganduje had said in the statement.

But in a swift riposte through Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, his own spokesperson, Yusuf, accused Ganduje of dodging the issue, saying the former governor’s recourse to “shamelessly” referring to non-existent failure of the government of the NNPP, instead of facing the nemesis of corruption and political violence hanging around his neck, was in bad taste.

Describing Ganduje’s eight-year tenure represented failure and maladministration, following massive records of corruption, diversion pf public funds and sale of government properties that characterised it, Yusuf insisted that the APC boss presided over two unproductive tenures characterised with siphoning public resources, inability to cater for the needs of Kano’s population, nepotism and bloodshed that left many families the mood of melancholy.

“Our eight months in office has remarkably outweighed Ganduje’s eight wasted years of political caricature and maladministration by all standards,” he said, advising the former governor to buckle up in defence of his “battered image” which he said had brought shame and disgrace to the good people of Kano,” at the court, instead of further exposing his impunity on the media space.

Insisting that no amount of media campaign would hinder the process of bringing him (Ganduje) to book on the glaring cases of corruption filed against him, he said: “We wish to reaffirm the present administration’s resolve and readiness to make Ganduje and his co-travellers face the full wrath of the law for their intentional wrong doing.”

Claiming that his government, was prioritising on socio-economic and physical infrastructure developments for the overall well-being of the state and the people, said he believed that for anyone to assume that efforts to unravel the issue of corruption charges against Ganduje and members of his immediate family was an attempt to cover up, clearly meant, such category of people were either under false illusion or being economical with the truth.

Dismissing the allegations against him of poor governance despite the increase in federal allocation, Governor, he maintained that his administration was still “struggling to recover from state of bankruptcy Ganduje plunged the state in the last eight years,” adding that it was also glaring that Ganduje’s administration was associated with massive corruption, nepotism and intimidation of innocent citizens of Kano state, hence the reason for setting up two Judicial Commission of Inquiry.”