Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has threatened to sue an online news medium, Daily Nigerian, that released a video allegedly showing him collecting money suspected to be bribe from contractors on different occasions.
Ganduje, in a statement by the state Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, said the video was not only cloned, but also that the allegation contained no iota of truth.
He said: “We wish to state that there is no iota of truth to these allegations and if there is any such alleged video, it is at best cloned.
“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 brought to book.”
Publisher reacts
However, Publisher of Daily Nigerian, Jaafar Jaafar, who had gone underground due to alleged threat to his life, said the sting operation to capture the governor on camera began two years ago when one of the contractors agreed to a request by the media outfit to plant spy camera on him, while offering the bribes.
The publisher said: “During a 10-month effort to capture the bribe giving/taking scenes, the governor’s face and body were clearly captured in nine clips, while six others did not clearly reveal the governor’s face.
“About $5 million dollars were delivered to the governor during the sting operation. One of the contractors, who preferred not to be named, said the reason he collaborated with Daily Nigerian was to expose corruption and bring sanity to the country.
“The contractor stated that if his aim was to blackmail or extort the governor, he would have used the videos to get over a billion settlement or force the governor to pay the hundreds of millions of naira the state was owing to his company or force him to pay back all the money he paid as kickbacks.
“We believe if public office holders are exposed, there will be sanity in the system.”
