Leaked phone conversation indicts Kwankwaso in Bayero’s removal as Emir

Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano state despite denying any involvement in the removal of Aminu Bayero as the Emir of Kano State, a leaked phone conversation between him and an associate has revealed his level involvement in the dissolution of the five Emirates and the subsequent return of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II to replace Aminu Ado Bayero.

According to PRNigeria, a fact-check news platform, Kwankwaso received a call from an associate who deliberated the dethronement of Bayero and his replacement with Sanusi as the Kano Emir.

NewsBand last weekend reported that the Kano state House of Assembly repealed the Emirates council law signed by former governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who is now the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress on the five new Emirates, which however, paved way for governor Abba Yusuf to fire Bayero and bring back Sanusi.

While the governor’s political godfather, Kwankwaso, said during an interview with BBC some days ago that he was not aware of Emir Bayero’s impending sack and Emir Sanusi’s return, a leaked phone conversation with a political associate suggests that the leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) may be the arrowhead of the political cum traditional face-off in the state.

In the leaked tape, Kwankwaso asks the caller if everything is moving as planned on the replacement of Aminu with Sanusi, to which the latter answers in the affirmative.

He also asks if Sanusi has taken over the main palace in Kano city.

After obtaining the audio, the PRNigeria said it’s Factcheck team decided to subject it to an authenticity test using speech recognition freeware, which proved authentic.

While Artificial Intelligence software like Deepfake can mimic any voice after a few seconds of listening to it, PRNigeria extracted the audio’s voice and compared it against Kwankwaso’s publicly known voice, and the result was also positive.

Kwankwaso’s voice also returned with a 90% accuracy level when PRNigeria subjected the audio to the speech recognition test.

While it is rare for calls to initiate recording on the dial, hackers and other sources using sophisticated gadgets can intercept the same calls.

PRNigeria, therefore, subjected the audio to a deepfake test using a Deepware scanner, an AI tool used to detect alterations in audio and videos. It found that AI was not used to generate or modify the voices.

The conversation went thus:

Caller: Salamu Alaikum, Your Excellency, sir

Kwankwaso: Ameen, Ameen

Caller: Weldone sir

Kwankwaso: Ehen, thank you

Caller: Are we deciding on the planned gathering?

Kwankwaso: It has been postponed till Monday

Caller: Okay, let me inform them at the venue

Kwankwaso: Because of the current situation, it won’t be pleasant. It’s better to concentrate and entirely focus on the issue at hand first. By Monday, we do that other one.

Caller: My thoughts exactly

Kwankwaso: Is that our own Emir’s Palace filled with a crowd of people?

Caller: Yes, there are so many people

Kwankwaso: okay…I learned the other emir had been taken to Nasarawa (Palace), right?

Caller: Yes, they took him to Nasarawa Palace, but the main Emir’s Palace has a lot of people.

Kwankwaso: Okay great

Caller: There are enough forces there

Kwankwaso: No problem

Caller: Many people have trooped out

Kwankwaso: That is great

Caller: Are you going to hold back a bit

Kwankwaso: yes, I am around

Kwankwaso: okay (Hails Kwankwaso?)

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