Governor Ganduje of Kano State has threatened a lawsuit against an unnamed online news medium, which released a video where the Governor was alleged to be asking for a $5million bribe from contractors, as the Governor insists his Government will not succumb to cheap blackmail.
Although we are yet to see the alleged video, in a statement released a few hours ago by the Commissioner, of Information, Youth, and Culture in Kano State, Malam Muhammad denies the claim, saying the alleged video which is accusing Governor Ganduje of misconduct was a clone footage of the Governor.
The unnamed online news media is alleged to be in its possession some three sets of videos, allegedly showing how Governor Ganduje was receiving bribes from state contractors. One of the videos showed the governor roll nearly $3 million (25 percent) under his dress, the report alleged.
Malam Muhammad who was speaking on behalf of the Governor asked the People of Kano not to be carried away by distractors who are doing everything possible, including cloning an image of the Governor in a video just to discredit him on all the good work he has been doing. He said:
“The attention of Kano State Government has been drawn to the 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.
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 a 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 & 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 and 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 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 obstacles to the opposition agenda ahead of the 2019 general elections will be released in peace meal.
The government of Kano is taking this matter seriously and will exploit every appropriate legal avenue to ensure it gets to the roots of the matter and perpetrators are brought to book. We also call on the good people of Kano particularly members of the All Progressives Congress to remain calm and always be law abiding.
His Excellency Governor Danduje will remain focus in delivering the dividends of Democracy to the good people of Kano and other National assignments. He will never succumb to blackmail or negotiate with blackmailers”