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Speaking to the Voice of America, Hausa Service, The Grand Khadi said: “This issue has been on for long. The businessman lived at PZ area of Zaria, and he hailed from Kwanar Dangora. When he passed on, before the sharing of his inheritance, his children invited a friend of his to witness the exercise. The man knew the judge that was handling the case, Mahmud Shehu of Upper Shariha Court in Kawo, Kaduna, so he invited the judge into the committee that would share the inheritance.
“In the whole of Kaduna State, there is no court where the inheritance case was instituted, even in the Kawo court, it is not a suit. It was only the judge that was invited to be part of the committee. We don’t know the way and manner they did the sharing; we don’t even know the children; we don’t know what they shared and what was left”.
He further added that: “We learnt the children gave their father’s friend a bank draft of N21.644 million for him to put the money in his account. He in turn gave the judge the bank draft. We, as a court are not aware of that. We have a rule that says no judge should open an account with the name of his court because of the problems we sometime encounter. We then centralised the whole thing and instructed that any judge that is given any money; be it for inheritance or whatever, he should write and forward it to the registrar. We have only one account, and the signatory is the Chief Registrar of Shariah Court of Appeal.
“The judge, Mahmud Shehu, gave the draft to his registrar, Lami Baba Kwasau, and she then sent her assistant to take the draft to the Chief Registrar in his office. Chief Registrar collected the draft and deposited the money in the account of Shariah Court of Appeal. When it was time for the judge to share the money, he told Lami Baba Kwasau to bring it. She then wrote an application and a cheque was written in her name. It is the registrar that handles financial issues. As the Grand Khadi, I have nothing to do with money. The registrar has the right to send her assistant anywhere.
“So, her assistant came into the matter as a messenger who brought the application and collected the cheque on her behalf. She then went and cashed the money and ran away. The children were so disturbed and the judge wasn’t telling them the truth. Their father’s friend then came to me. I told him that my Chief Registrar came to tell me the day before that Kawo registrar, Lami Baba Kwasau, collected the cheque and cashed the money, but she was nowhere to be found.
“I told him that they should look for her and he should report the matter to the police. It was from me that he heard about the truth. I told him the judge was just playing them, hoping that they would see the woman. He later came along with some of the children and I told them the same thing. Police headquarters sent a delegation and we had our first meeting and then the second one with myself, the Chief Registrar, the judge, children and their father’s friend.
“We heard that she was in the South-west part of Nigeria. We then decided that the police would go and look for her. I told the judge that he should delegate his representative to be with the police so that he would be briefing him, because it wasn’t a suit in the court and the Shariah Court of Appeal would not be part of it. The children came and said we should sponsor the police to go to the South West, but we said why should we when we don’t know the matter officially as a court? It was the judge that went into the matter alone, so he should take responsibility in order to clear himself. We pray he gets out of it because of the children. We didn’t give them anything and they went along with the police, but they didn’t see her.”
Not pleased with the matter, the late Yahaya’s children took the case to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where the Chief Registrar and Kwasau’s assistant, Abdullahi, who collected the cheque on her behalf, were summoned. “The Chief Registrar was discharged that same day, but Abdullahi who collected the cheque on behalf of his registrar was told to write another statement and was later discharged. After about two to three weeks, they reported again to the EFCC in Abuja”. The judge, Shehu, was queried and later suspended for his action and an investigation instituted against him to ascertain the role he played in the whole saga.
He added: “As a result of that, he was suspended. Currently, he is not considered as a judge representing Kaduna State. He is now placed on half salary until we ascertain his position and the role he played in the matter. But whatever it is, the court will not dabble into the inheritance matter; ours is just to punish him for what he did”. The children have now sued the Kadun State attorney general because the matter was taking too long.
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