Former Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has unveiled plans to establish a Hisbah-like voluntary outfit under the Ganduje Foundation.
He said this is with a view to engaging 12,000 personnel dismissed by the Kano State Hisbah Board.
Ganduje, who is the immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), disclosed this while receiving a report on the disengaged staff.
He described their dismissal by the present administration as unjust.
The report was presented by the Director-General of the National Productivity Centre, Dr Baffa Babba Dan-Agundi, who chaired the committee set up to verify the affected personnel.
Dan-Agundi, who served as Director-General of the Kano Roads and Traffic Agency (KAROTA) during Ganduje’s tenure, said the committee had verified the identities and contacts of the dismissed workers.
“Your Excellency, this is a draft report of the 12,000 Hisbah personnel dismissed by the Kano State Government. We have verified them with their contacts. All of them are with you in this journey,” Dan-Agundi said.
Responding, Ganduje said the proposed body would operate independently without being a government agency.
“It will be known as Independent Hisbah. I know there are many others who will want to join aside from this 12,000. You’ll soon be given another mandate of getting more people to join,” he said.
The event was attended by Ganduje’s former deputy and APC governorship candidate in the 2023 elections, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna; his running mate, Murtala Sule Garo; Kano APC Chairman, Abdullahi Abbas; and the Managing Director of the Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA), Rabiu Sulaiman Bichi, among others.
The proposed outfit is expected to be headed by Ganduje’s former Hisbah Commander-General, Sheikh Muhammad Harun Ibn Sina.
Ibn Sina explained that the body, to be known as Khairun Nas, would function as a voluntary organisation with similar roles to Hisbah but without being a parallel government agency.
“The 12,000 officers engaged during his tenure and dismissed by this government complained to him. He said an independent body could be established, but not an agency, as that one only government could do. So he set up a committee co-chaired by Dan-Agundi and me, alongside four others, to verify the people and their willingness to join,” Ibn Sina said.
He added that the body had not yet been formally established, stressing that it would be open to all interested individuals beyond the dismissed personnel.
On whether allowances would be paid, Ibn Sina said the outfit would be purely voluntary, but support from individuals or organisations could provide stipends.
He noted that the mandate of the proposed body would include “enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, providing first aid, admonition, and assistance to people.”
