HAPPENING NOW: Kano Assembly begins Ganduje’s dollars probe

A committee of the Kano State House of Assembly today opened investigations into the allegations of bribery involving the State Governor, Umar Abdullahi Ganduje.

Daily Nigerian had published a video showing Ganduje collecting several bundles of dollar bills and tucking some in his babaringa.

The online newspaper claimed the money was collected as kickback from a contractor.

Government claimed the video was doctored and vowed to sue the newspaper and its publisher for blackmail.

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The newspaper’s publisher, Jafar Jafar, who had been in hiding since the video was published emerged today at the Assembly premises, to meet protests by school children.

One of the placards, carried by the kids said, ‘Jafar, your video will not stop us from voting Ganduje’.

The Kano State Government has however described the video as an attempt to blackmail the governor.

“The attention of Kano State Government has been drawn to malicious report by an online media platform, alleging that the Governor of Kano State His Excellency Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje OFR was involved in an inappropriate conduct after foot dragging by the online media to give clarity to the allegation with a clear view to blackmail and extort the Governor,” Malam Muhammad Garba, Commissioner, Information, Youth & Culture, Kano State said in a statement.

“The blackmail did not come as a surprise to the government and good people of Kano state particularly, at a time when we are approaching  
general elections.

“Evidently, Kano being the stronghold of the APC and expected to produce the highest votes in the upcoming general elections is a target of campaign of calumny.”

“It is also not surprising that the stuff is published by one who has for long been working for the opposition and an antagonist of the APC government in Nigeria.”

“We wish to state that there is no iota of truth to these allegations and if indeed there is any such alleged video, it is at best cloned. More so, in this era of technological advancements, some evil minded people often  take advantage to blackmail and extort and assassinate the character of people that do not ” patronize them”.

“It will be recalled that just recently, the Inspector General of Police,  the Emir of Kano, Governor of Adamawa and many others were ridiculed when their cloned videos & pictures went viral respectively. It is surprising that the same editor of the online medium making the baseless allegations against the Governor was the one who came out to defend the Emir,  arguing that the video was cloned. Indeed it was.

“To further prove that the online media is bent on discrediting, blackmailing and assassinating the character of the Governor, the online media has yet to reveal the identity of the giver of the bribe, who is also suppose to be a culprit in the eye of the law.

“We are therefore calling on the general public to be vigilant as we heard from good authority that many of such cloned videos involving highly placed persons considered as obstacle to the opposition agenda ahead of 2019 will be released in peace meal.