Kano govt denies banning women from driving

(FILES) This file photo taken on September 27, 2017 shows Saudi woman driving her car along a street in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, on September 27, 2017. With many carrots and some sticks, ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia seeks to tackle entrenched male attitudes towards women drivers before millions take the wheel, many for the first time, on June 2018. / AFP PHOTO / REEM BAESHEN

Kano State Government has debunked rumours on its purported plan to ban women, regardless of their faith, from driving in the state.

The denial was contained in a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information Mr Muhammed Garba, and made available to newsmen on Thursday, in Kano.

He described the trending online report as “fallacious” and baseless, with no credible source.

“The trending story lacks credibility and that is why it is wholly attributed to a source that cannot be substantiated,’’ he added.

Garba pointed out that the state government would not decide in “a secret meeting” a critical issue that had to do with its teeming populace, adding that even in Saudi Arabia, the authorities had in 2018 lifted the decades-old law that banned women from driving.

He expressed delight that some of the scholars who were quoted to have supported the alleged ban, had already dissociated themselves from it.

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