NIGERIA: Court blocks probe of governor taking dollar bribes

A High Court in Nigeria’s Kano State has blocked a legislative probe into alleged bribe-taking by state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Daily Nigerian portal has reported.

The portal led by its editor-in-chief Jafar Jafar have over the last two months shared videos of Ganduje reportedly taking dollar denominated bribed from contractors.

The Kano State House of Assembly, which has the powers to impeach Ganduje on stated misconduct, opened a probe into the videos which have since gone viral.

Jafar has since appeared before the legislature’s committee of enquiry even though Ganduje sent a representative last week to stress that he had never in his life collected a bribe.

The journalist appearing before the house insisted that the videos were true and that the bribe sums the governor received amounted to $5 million.

The  journalist Jafar Jafar has insisted on the authenticity of a video that showed a governor taking monies said to be bribe sums from contractors.

Jafar, the publisher of the Daily Nigerian website appeared before the Kano State House of Assembly on Thursday after the lawmakers extended an invitation to him.

“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 said.

Kano state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, is the subject of a parliamentary probe into a report that he had received dollar bribes amounting to 5 million from contractors.

Starr Radio UK  has so far seen two sets of video released by the portal in which Ganduje is seen receiving monies from the alleged contractors. All sums were in dollar bundles.

Jafar who was accompanied by his lawyers, however, refused to disclose the names of the contractors who agreed to help him prove the corrupt activities of the state governor.

The Daily Nigerian said it had a series of videos which were captured in 2017. Jafar has since submitted all copies of his evidence to the parliament.

The committee probing the allegations has also promised to vet the videos with help of experts and to take appropriate action where necessary.

Ganduje, a strong ally of president Muhhamadu Buhari, could be impeached if found guilty. He is currently serving the first of possibly two-term as governor of the north central state which is dominated by Muslims and has a heavy population.