Over two weeks after the videos showing Kano governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, allegedly collecting and stocking wads of dollars into his babariga, neither the president nor the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said anything concerning the allegations.
This comes as a new alleged bribery video of the Governor emerged yesterday and is in sharp contrast to the stance of the administration on opposition politicians accused of corruption.
In scenes reminiscent of Nigeria’s Nollywood where videos are released in series, for the past two weeks, series of videos have been trending online allegedly showing the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, purportedly collecting brides from contractors.
The videos show picture of a man stocking wraps of US dollars in his ‘babanriga’, a traditional cloth common in the northern part of the country. When invited by the Kano State House of Assembly to explain the videos, the publisher of Daily Nigerian, Jafaar Jafaar, who published the videos insisted the person on the videos is the governor, Ganduje.
According to Jafaar, the said videos were recorded in 2017 after series of complaints from one of the contractors handling projects in the state, that Gnaduje allegedly collects kickbacks from him.
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According to the contractor, the kickbacks run up from 15 percent to 25 percent of each project carried out in the state. In one video, a man is seen pocketing money, which Jafaar puts at $230,000. The alleged bribe collected is said to have run up to N750m due from N3bn contracts awarded in the state.
“More than two years ago, a contractor friend of mine complained to me that the governor had been receiving kickbacks, ranging from 15 to 25 percent, for every project executed in the state from contractors. We then agreed to plant spy cameras on his Kaftan lapel so that he can capture the brazen act in hard evidence. He captured at least 15 clips, nine of which fully showed the governor’s face, body and hands collecting bundles of dollars,” Jafaar alleged.
Ganduje has denied any wrong doing, insisting the videos either do not exist or were doctored.
But Jafar maintained the videos are authentic and have been so verified by his technical team before being published.
“In the case of the video clips in question, our in-house technical expert, the editor-in-chief and editorial adviser certified that the videos were original and not doctored contents.”
He also added that “experts from Amnesty International, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Premium Times also watched the clips and certified their authenticity before we went to press.”
Although, information has it that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered investigation into the issue, after watching the video, it is largely been kept under the carpet.
Governor Ganduje, on his part, has threatened the publisher and has even gone ahead to institute court actions against the authors.
Meanwhile, the EFCC has remained largely ambivalent on the issue refusing to confirm whether it will investigate the matter of not.
Even though the governor enjoys immunity, it does not prevent the EFCC from investigating the governor as was the case with so many other governors in the recent past. “If they are talking about issues, let them resolve their issues. Whether we are going to look at it is a different matter, but for now, I do not know anything,” said Wilson Uwujaren, spokesperson for the EFCC.
The silence of the president and the EFCC is in sharp contrast to the treatment of former Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose, whose accounts were variously frozen by the EFCC and who was virtually encircled and kept under watch even while still governor.
Immediately after the Ekiti gubernatorial election, which was won by APC’s Kayode Fayemi, EFCC was quick to tweet “The parri is over; The cloak of immunity torn apart, and the staff broken. #Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”
Governor Ganduje is in the midst of a thick political battle to retain his seat as governor and wade off the so-called influence of his former boss and mentor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who has moved to the opposition PDP and has vowed to dislodge the APC from Kano state. The President also got his largest vote from Kano state in the 2015 elections and governor Ganduje has again promised to deliver Kano’s over 5 million votes to the president in 2019.
However, reacting to the video, Ayo Kusamotu, political strategies and lawyer, doubted the authenticity of the video, stressing that it may be premature to determine if the governor is guilty of the offence.
Kusamotu urged those responsible for the video to come forward and prove that they are genuine, adding that the Kano Governor should be given a fair hearing before been declared guilty.
“You have to be careful in these things, it could be photo-shop. I think the people should come out to say we gave the Governor the money and this is how it went.
“How do we know the money is meant for bribe? As for now there is still some level of suspicion, we don’t know if it is for bribe, you can’t bribe a judge, what you are seeing on video may be from the other-side; for the purpose of fair hearing it is very dangerous to prosecute a man like that”.
Also, the National President of a civic society group, Voters Awareness Initiative, Wale Ogunade, urged the EFCC to verify the sources of the video and bring those involved to book.
Ogunade stressed that if proven such scam would be a big minus to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) ahead of next year’s general elections.
“I saw the video, I think we have to be cautious in handling this, I wonder why the EFCC has not investigated the video to confirm if it is real because this is a political era and you can never be sure of what is happening”.
Iniobong Iwok & Joseph Maurice Ogu
