A coalition of civil society organisations have dismissed an online report that an unnamed governor of a state in the North West geopolitical zone has been caught on tape collecting bribes totalling $5million.
The coalition; Citizens for Justice Network, CJN, Peoples Alliance for Indigenous Rights, PAIR, Society for Civic and Gender Equity, SoCEGE, and Network for Transparency, NET, in a statement in Abuja, described the report as mere concoction aimed at fishing for something but with nothing.
Spokespersons of the coalition, Isa Mahmud of PAIR and Okoronkwo Chuks, said the report was an act of desperation intent on causing confusion in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, by wild allegations.
According to them, it is inconceivable that any serious minded person could imagine anybody, more so a governor, stuffing a whopping $5million into the pockets of his trousers.
They stressed that after rigorous findings, the coalition established that the report was the handiwork of Rabiu Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasiyya movement aimed at stoking crisis in the North West, a stronghold of President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of the 2019 elections.
“It is a matter of fact that the publisher of the Daily Nigerian, Jafar Jafar, is a former aide to Senator Kwankwaso as governor and still works for him.
“Having failed woefully at his futile attempt to be president, he is back to spinning cheap tales and aiming to foment trouble in the North West.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the infantile effort, like all others in the past, will amount to absolutely nothing.”
The coalition also wondered how the so-called analyst of the apparently doctored video were able to determine the exact sum from watching on screen.
The duo of Mahmud and Chuks said Nigerians were now wiser and would not be misled into buying a damaged product that the online medium is trying to sell.
The groups, therefore, advised the publisher of the newspaper to be guided of the Cybercrimes Prohibition and Prevention Act of 2015 against making any unfounded claims against any governor of the North West.
