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A committee of the Kano State House of Assembly today opened investigations into the allegations of bribery involving the State Governor, Umar Abdullahi Ganduje.
ElombahNews had published a video showing Ganduje collecting several bundles of dollar bills and tucking some in his “babanringa”.
The publisher of the video, Mr. Jafar Jafra claimed the money was collected as kickback from his friend, a contractor.
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VIDEO: Kano state Governor Ganduje caught on video taking bribe
Government claimed the video was doctored and vowed to sue the video publisher and a newspaper publisher for blackmail.
The newspaper’s publisher, Jafar Jafar, who had been in hiding since the video was published emerged today at the Assembly premises, to meet protests by school children.
One of the placards, carried by the kids said, ‘Jafar, your video will not stop us from voting Ganduje’.
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2nd video: Governor Ganduje collecting $5million bribe from contractor
Update:
Jaafar Jaafar’s appearance before Kano State House of Assembly Investigative Panel on Thursday
12:15 pm: Mr Jaafar arrived at the floor of the chamber.
The session begins at 12:20 pm with the
Chairman of the probe committee, Badge Babba Dan’agundi, a member representing Kano
Municipal, announcing the replacement of Barr.
Nasir Aliyu as Daily Nigerian and Jaafar Jaafar’s lawyer.
He disclosed that Barrs. Isaac Ambule and Adam Bashir are now Daily Nigerian and Jaafar Jaafar’s lawyers.
In his opening remark, the chairman assured Mr. Jaafar of adequate security.
He, therefore, asked Mr Jaafar to introduce himself before the members of the legislature.
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12:28 pm: Mr Jaafar began with his brief bio and went straight to his presentations.
Speaking on the authenticity of the videos, the publisher said his editorial advisors had to seek professional hands to verify the authenticity of the videos before getting them published.
“We invited amnesty international officials to verify the videos.
“We also asked our editorial adviser to ascertain the genuineness of the video.
“We also contacted BBC and confirmed the videos as genuine,” he asserted.
In his reaction, the chairman asked Mr Jaafar to name the contractors that gave him the clips.
“Can you tell us the name of the contractor that
gave you the videos?,” he queried.
Responding, Mr Jaafar said:
“Constitutionally and ethically, we can’t disclose the identity of the person.”
Apparently not satisfied by Mr Jaafar’s stance, the chairman said: “We are going to invite you again with your graphics specialist.
“We received the videos and we are going to play them at your presence and your lawyers.
“We will also give the governor’s side a chance to study the authenticity of the video.
“This is going to be as soon as possible, within the time frame we are given to finish this investigation.”
12:37 pm: However, Mr Jaafar’s lawyer noted that it won’t be fair to make presentations and leave without any conclusion arrived at, saying:
“We do not object the rules you have set. However, we will want to be here before the committee again,” he prayed.
12: 44 pm: Responding, the chairman assured the publisher and his lawyers of impartiality in the whole process, adding: “We are going to produce independent person to probe the clips.
All of you must be there. The video clips have been presented to the committee already.
“We don’t want people to think we go undercover. We want people to see that we are doing this thing objectively. But we will provide more security.
“We will play these videos in the presence of Jaafar and Ganduje’s lawyers, and the office of the attorney general and video experts in the next sitting. We will provide our own video experts to verify the video. ”
12: 46 pm: Subsequently, Mr Jaafar reaffirmed his stance on the published video, saying: “We can only restate, reaffirm and confirm that what we have published is genuine, accurate, not tampered with and not doctored.”
12: 52 pm: Also speaking was the state Attorney General, Ibrahim Mukhtar…
