Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Friday, not only refused to appear before the Kano State House of Assembly investigating him, but also denied allegations of bribery against him via four video clips so far released online.

While giving his testimony before the House Committee, through the State Commissioner of Information, Mr Muhammad Garba, Ganduje said the allegation labelled against him through the video clips released by Jaafar Jaafar, the publisher of Daily Nigerian, were injurious and aimed at tarnishing his image politically.
Ganduje said

According to Garba, the Governor, in a document presented before the Committee, denied collecting the bribe from the contractor as alleged by Jaafar.

According to the document, the Governor stated that such had never happened with him and will never happen even in the future.

The Governor in the letter called on the public to discard such allegations as it did not happen and also called on such publishers to avoid such publications that can tarnish the image of leaders.

“Such untruth publications was done to the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi the II and also to the former Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau”, Ganduje said in the document.

Also commenting on the issue, the Commissioner of Justice Barrister Ibrahim Mukhtar and also the State’s Attorney General commended the way and manner the committee is handling the issue by giving fair hearing to the both parties.

According to him, the Governor has options as stated in the letter presented to him on the invitation, as the committee gave an option for him to send a representative or send a written document as provided by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Baffa Danagundi, commended the the represantative of the Governor for honouring the committee’s request.

Danagundi said the committee will thoroughly watch the video on Tuesday in the presence of the representatives of both parties but not publicly.

It could be recalled that the state House of Assembly, under the leadership of Alhaji Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, constituted a committee on October 15 to establish the authenticity of the videos.

•Excerpted from Independent report

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