In the video published by Daily Nigerian, the Kano state governor received dollar bills which are reported to be bribes in bundles, he then tucked the money into his local attire popularly known as Babbar Riga.
The audio recording of the video was altered as a soundtrack played over the conversation Ganduje had with the two unseen men handing him the dollars.
Chronicle NG reports that the Kano State Government has however described the video as an attempt to blackmail Ganduje.
“The attention of Kano State Government has been drawn to a 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.
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“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 against Ganduje 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 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. Surprisingly, 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 supposed 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 obstacles to the opposition agenda ahead of 2019 will be released in peace meal.
“The government of Kano state is taking this matter seriously, and will exploit every appropriate and legal avenue to ensure that it gets to the root of the matter and the perpetrators are brought to book. We also call on the good people of Kano particularly members of the APC to remain calm and always be law-abiding.
“His Excellency Governor Ganduje will remain focused on delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of Kano including other national assignments. He will never succumb to blackmail or negotiate with blackmailers.”
