Corruption: Rising tension in APC over Ganduje bribery video

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been thrown into rising tension as the Kano State House of Assembly deepens investigation into the $5 million bribery video allegation involving Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State. APC leaders have become apprehensive that the investigation could lead to the impeachment of the Kano Governor as the lawmakers are getting closer to verifying the video contents which could lead to further actions in the heat of preparations for the 2019 general elections.

National Daily gathered that attempts by APC leaders to influence the Kano lawmakers to sweep the allegation under the carpet were resisted by the state legislators; this was said to make the party national leaders fret over the likely consequences of the investigation.

Meanwhile, Jafar Jafar, Publisher of the Daily Nigerian, an online newspaper which leaked the bribery video, appeared before the Kano House of Assembly ad hoc committee investigating the video contents on Thursday where he told the lawmakers that the video of the alleged bribery of Governor Ganduje. is genuine and un-doctored.

The video clip which revealed an alleged bribery of the Kano Governor, packing dollars into his clothing surrounded by a contractor and other staff, had gone viral in the social media.

Governor Ganduje had sued the publisher in court for libel, demanding N1 billion damage, however, the Kano lawmakers could not wait for the conclusion of the legal suit before commencing investigations. Kano APC had declined comments on the video clip and the emergent investigation by the State Assembly, restrictively saying that the matter is before the court and would, therefore, not want to make prejudicial statement on the issue. However, the feeling is not the same with the national leadership of the ruling party, which was said to be highly perturbed about the proceedings.

Ganduje has been in the vanguard of the campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election for second term in 2019. Since the leakage of the video, the President has maintained pacific silence, the EFCC seems to have gone on holidays in the war against corruption in Nigeria; the ICPC has also become dormant, perhaps, all waiting for a PDP victim, which fortunately, is not forthcoming at the moment, leaving the EFCC feast solely on former Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Meanwhile, Jafar had maintained that before publication of the video, his organization had carried out series of verification to ensure the genuineness of the clips. He admitted that he contacted the Kano State Government to verify the video clips, noting that the government had earlier, before the videos were released, issued a statement denying the genuineness of the clips.

“I received the video clips from a whistle blower who has been complaining to me, claiming that Ganduje is of the habit of collecting percentage from contractors.

“I could not believe him until when he presented the video clips to me, which he said was recorded with a camera fixed on his cloth,” Jafar had declared.

The Publisher had disclosed that he got the videos in September 2018, but had earlier watched it since 2016.

He narrated that some of the clips are showing the face of the Governor while some are not; explaining that it was deliberately done by the Daily Nigerian to cover the voices of those present when the incident occurred and conceal their identity

National Daily gathered that Jafar had admitted that the documents he presented to the committee on Thursday included the video clips with all the voices of those involved. . He, however, resisted pressures to disclose the source of the video.

The Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Baffa Danagundi, was gathered to have remarked that the committee was set up to investigate and find out the truth of the allegation.