The Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has finally spoken about the videos posted on the internet in 2018 purporting that he received a bribe in American dollars.
Ganduje said the videos in which he was caught in 2018 pocketing wads of American dollars presented to him as bribe is fake.
The Daily Nigerian newspaper published the videos that immediately went viral and damaged Mr Ganduje’s reputation.
On Friday, Mr Ganduje, on a BBC Hausa programme, ‘Afada Acika’ sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, said the video was ‘cloned’ (manipulated) “and those behind it would be brought to shame soon”.
“The video is fake and we are preparing to prove that. But I cannot preempt what we are doing with regard to that. I am assuring you this video is fake and all those that are behind it would be put to shame,” the governor said.
The videos that were serially published in 2018 by Daily Nigerian were said to have been recorded in 2017.
The governor had immediately described the video as ‘cloned’ and sued the newspaper’s publisher, Jafar Jafar.
The newspaper alleged that the dollars were part of a $5 million the governor received from a government contractor.
Some of the videos were uploaded without audio, apparently to conceal the identity of the contractor.
Asked on A Fada A Cika to confirm whether he was the person in the video, Ganduje claimed the video was doctored to show him collecting something.
He added: “Even your picture can be altered to show something on your head or hand. And you know it’s possible. People always tend to believe falsehood.”
To another question on whether he took dollar bribe, Ganduje said: “It is a lie. Nothing of that nature ever happened.
“It was just part of a scheme to stop me from contesting election – and I contested; to stop me from winning election – and I won.
“But that is not the issue, the big issue that we will deal with those behind it.”
He is already in court with Daily Nigerian, which first published the videos in 2018.
The governor is demanding N3billion in damages.
The governor, in the audience participatory programme of the BBC Hausa, also responded to multiple questions from Kano residents on his government’s policies on privatisation of public asset.
Ganduje said claims that his administration was selling off plots of land at historical sites such as the city walls are mischievous.
He said such places are owned by the federal government and that the state government cannot tamper with them.
He said the government only allocated land to residents to build shops in front of the walls. He said the walls are now more protected than before because those encroaching and carving out the walls can no longer do so after shops were erected.
Ganduje said other places referred to such as ‘Gidan Zakka’ were abandoned and became criminal hideouts, thus, “the government decided to put them to productive use”.
The governor also said “he has revived the Kano master plan and built flyovers to improve the flow of traffic in the metropolis”.
On the health sector, he said: “We have upgraded Muhammadu Buhari and Isyaka Rabiu Hospitals and installed modern equipment.”
