A Kano State High Court on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, adjourned the trial of former Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, his wife, Hafsat Umar, and six others to February 3, 2026, for the hearing of all pending motions.
The defendants are facing an 11-count charge filed by the Kano State Government, bordering on bribery, conspiracy, misappropriation and diversion of public funds amounting to several billions of naira.
The other accused persons and entities are Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General Enterprises Limited.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, counsel to the state government, Jedidiah Akpata, told the court that the prosecution was not ready to proceed and sought leave to move its application for an extension of time.
“My Lord, we are not ready to proceed. We seek the leave of the court to move our application for extension of time,” Akpata said.
He explained that the prosecution filed two motions: one seeking additional time to respond to the respondents’ motion for stay of proceedings dated November 19, 2025, and another to respond to the sixth respondent’s preliminary objection dated November 24, 2025.
Counsel to Ganduje, his wife and son, Lydia Oluwakemi-Oyewo, said the defence was ready to proceed but did not oppose the prosecution’s request.
“My Lord, we are ready. We are not opposing the prosecution’s motion for extension of time,” she said.
Other defence counsels also confirmed readiness to continue with the matter. They include Chief M. N. Duru, SAN (for the 3rd and 7th defendants), Abdul Adamu-Fagge, SAN (for the 5th defendant), Abubakar Ahmad (for the 6th defendant), and Abdulrazaq A. Ahmed (for the 8th defendant).
In her ruling, Justice Amina Adamu-Aliyu granted the prosecution’s application for extension of time and adjourned the case to February 3, 2026, for the hearing of all pending motions.