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Gandujegate: Police stops students from protest against Kano governor

By Timileyin Omilana
17 October 2018   |   10:39 am
The Nigerian police have banned the Kano chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from embarking on a protest to call for the resignation of the governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, for allegedly receiving a  $5 million bribe. Kano police spokesperson, Magaji Majia, said the police rejected the students’ request to conduct a rally on…

Abdullahi Ganduje

The Nigerian police have banned the Kano chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from embarking on a protest to call for the resignation of the governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, for allegedly receiving a  $5 million bribe.

Kano police spokesperson, Magaji Majia, said the police rejected the students’ request to conduct a rally on October 29 from Zoo Road to Kano government house.

Majia said the rally was to ask Ganduje to step aside to allow for an independent investigation to ascertain the authenticity of the video clips.

“I wish to warn the group leader, Comrade Isa Abubakar, to caution his members to desist from embarking on this rally, Majia said

“However, we advise anyone who has a complaint or suggestion on this matter to approach the committee set up by the state House of Assembly in order to expand the investigation.”

He noted that “whoever caught violating these directives would face the wrath of law.

A news platform, Daily Nigerian, on Sunday reported that Ganduje received up to $5 million in a series of questionable deals with state contractors.

The platform said it is in possession of three footages that showed how the governor was receiving bribes from state contractors. One of the videos showed a person, which it claimed to be the governor, roll nearly $3 million under his cloth.

But Ganduje denied being the person in the video and threatened a sweeping lawsuit against Daily Nigerian.

Meanwhile, the Kano State House of Assembly on Monday set up a seven-member committee to probe the videos. The committee was given one month to perform its task. It is not clear if the assembly, made up largely of the governor’s loyalists, would do a thorough job.

While the publisher of the videos maintained that a representative from a reputable international anti-corruption agency, who was also furnished with the clips for authentication, confirmed that it was genuine.

“Going by the analysis we made on conversation and the graphics, we concluded that the voice matched the subject matter’s voice and the images are unmistakably his,” the agency’s representative said.

The state government said the videos are fake and that Ganduje “is a victim of blackmail from the opposition parties in order to deface the Kano State APC-led government. The state is a stronghold of President Muhammadu Buhari.

A coalition of civil society organisations said the report was an act of desperation intent on causing confusion in the APC by wild allegations.

The coalition stressed that after rigorous investigations, the coalition established that the report was the handiwork of Rabiu Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasiyya Movement aimed at stoking crisis in the North West.

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