The transfer of ownership effectively excluded Kano State from the dry port project, which was originally designed as a joint venture involving both federal and state equity.
Former Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje quietly stripped the state government of its 20 percent equity in the multibillion-naira Dala Inland Dry Port Nigeria Limited and handed the shares to his children, who were subsequently appointed as directors and shareholders of the company, according to an investigation by Premium Times.
According to the report, Ganduje, who resigned earlier this year as the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), not only privatised the state’s stake but also went on to approve a contract worth over N4 billion to provide infrastructure for the same project.
The transfer of ownership effectively excluded Kano State from the dry port project, which was originally designed as a joint venture involving both federal and state equity.
Premium Times reported that it obtained documents showing Kano State had acquired its 20 percent stake in the port as early as September 2006, during the administration of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau.
The acquisition followed the Federal Government’s 2003 port development policy, which limited private ownership to 60 percent while reserving 20 percent each for federal and state governments.
At the time, Kano businessman Ahmad Rabiu held 80 percent of the equity, while the state government held 20 percent, with the understanding that Kano would provide roads, water, electricity, and fencing at the project site in Zawachiki, Kumbotso Local Government Area.
However, successive administrations, first led by Shekarau and then by Rabiu Kwankwaso, failed to meet these obligations. International shipping giant Maersk Sealand, which had initially shown interest in the project, withdrew over the state’s lack of seriousness.
By 2019, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council threatened to terminate the concession after years of stagnation. Apart from a single-site office built in 2011, no significant development had taken place.
Faced with the threat of termination, founder Ahmad Rabiu allegedly ceded 60 percent of his stake to the Ganduje family, effectively handing control of the project to the former governor’s children.
Shortly afterward, Ganduje, still governor at the time, awarded a contract of more than N4 billion for infrastructural development at the port. This was the same responsibility Kano State had been expected to fulfill under its 20 percent equity agreement, but which it no longer controlled after Ganduje’s manoeuvre.
The revelations raise serious questions of conflict of interest, abuse of office, and economic sabotage, as the former governor allegedly converted a public investment into a private family empire while still using public funds to bankroll it.
The Dala Inland Dry Port, strategically located in Kano, was conceived as a gateway for trade with Nigeria’s northern neighbours, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
In 2020, the Federal Government granted it full port-of-origin status and designated it a logistics free-trade zone.
In another letter dated June 18, 2020, and sent to the Kano State Government, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) urged the state authorities to fulfill their responsibilities by providing the basic infrastructure needed at the dry port site.
“You may wish to be informed that in 2006, Dala Inland Dry Port Limited was granted a build, own, operate and transfer (BOT) concession to the 20,000 Equivalent Units (TEUs) capacity Inland Dry Port at Zawachiki, Kano for a period of 25 years. However, due to some challenges, not much progress has been made towards the development of the project,” Hassan Bello, former NSC chairperson wrote in the letter addressed to the then-Governor Ganduje.
“It may interest you to note that the concessionaire for the dry port have divested a substantial part of their shares to their new solid partners, whose participation in the project, we believe, will reinvigorate the project towards timely completion and commencement of operations of the dry port facility.”
Although the letter did not name the “new solid partners,” later company records revealed them to be Mr Ganduje’s children.
With his family now owning majority shares in the dry port, Mr. Ganduje, as governor, finally decided to use state funds to build the infrastructure the state should have built for owning 20 percent shares in the project. However, by the time the contract was awarded, the state was no longer a co-owner of the port.
On July 7, 2020, about 19 days after the state government acknowledged the NSC’s letter, Mr Ganduje awarded a N2.3 billion contract to FRI Construction Company Limited for the provision of infrastructure at the dry port.
“Sequel to the deliberations of the State Executive Council’s meeting held on Wednesday, 1 July 2020, I am directed to convey its approval for the award of the above-mentioned contract (provision of infrastructure at Dala Inland Dry Port) to your company at the cost of N2,300,000,604.24 only and completion period of six months.
“If this offer is acceptable, you should pay the appropriate tender fee of N46,000,012.08 only at the Ministry of Finance – Works Registration Office after which you will report to the Director Civil Engineering Department for further details of the contract,” the director of planning in the state’s ministry of works, Usman Abdulkadir, said in the letter to the FRI Construction Company Limited.
Sources familiar with the deal told Premium Times that the contract was later jacked up to over N4 billion. While FRI Construction took charge of fencing, electricity, water, warehouses, offices, and storage facilities, it quietly subcontracted the road construction to Triacta Nigeria Limited.
When Dala Inland Dry Port Limited was first incorporated on December 8, 2003, the only directors were its founder, Ahmad Rabiu, and his son, Rabiu Ahmad Rabiu.
However, at an extraordinary general meeting held on January 19, 2005, the board was expanded to include four new members: Abdulaziz Haladu, Anwar Isyaku-Rabiu, Diepreye George, and Abdullahi Kwaru.
Fifteen years later, on March 5, 2020, everything changed. According to company records obtained by Premium Times, Abdullahi Ganduje’s three children, Abdulaziz Abdullahi Umar, Umar Abdullahi Umar, and Muhammad Abdullahi Umar, along with the former governor’s close ally, Abubakar Bawuro, replaced Rabiu’s son and all other directors previously elected in 2005.
Minutes of the company’s Annual General Meeting, held at its Zaria Road office in Kano on the same day, confirmed their appointments. It was at this meeting that the Kano State Government was formally pushed out as a co-owner of the dry port, while Ganduje’s children were not only installed as directors but also handed five million shares each, cementing their control of the multibillion-naira project.
