The Nigerian Alliance for Justice and Good Governance, NAJGG, on Wednesday declared that a video being circulated on social media by an online medium, Nigerian Daily, which allegedly displayed the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, receiving a bribe in dollars.
The NAJGG National Coordinator, Cyril Obande, said this at a press conference which held at Abuja.

Obande, who described the video as ‘edited’ and ‘a clone,’ also explained that the governor was not at the location of the video at that time.

“The governor was not there from our own forensic investigation. If you check the time and place at which the video occurred, the governor was not at that particular place at that particular time.

“I am not in the best position to disclose where he actually was, but if you go through records of where his appointment was as at then, you will know he wasn’t at the premises. Therefore, the video, as you can see, was edited.

“Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has taken effective measures to prevent corruption in his administration. This includes appropriate frameworks, legislation, internal controls, ethics and compliance.

Obande also demanded that the journalist behind the viral video publication either bring forward the names of the contractors who gave the bribe, the contracts for which the bribe was taken, as well as the total worth of the contract, or be subject to arrest and prosecution.
“Therefore, we condemn in totality the allegations leveled against the governor that he collected a kick-back for contracts awarded.
“We view this as an orchestrated attempt by some opposing politicians to dent the credibility of the governor and prevent him from going for second term in office.

“The NAJGG urges the Kano State House of Assembly to carry out a holistic investigation into the allegation and to engage the services of experts to review the authenticity of that video clip while making sure that justice is done at the end of their probe.

“We call on the law enforcement agencies to arrest the author of the purported story, compel him to provide complete facts including unedited video recordings of the alleged bribe taking and where he fails to provide these facts, he should be arrested and prosecute for libel.
“When he is able to furnish the people with some of these facts, then Nigerians will have reasons to believe his report.

“We have seen investigative reports both local and international with facts and figures but he only mentioned the amount of the alleged bribe given, he did not mention the names of the companies, the worth of the contracts and the persons who were awarded the contracts. Therefore, we condemn this form of deceptive journalism in totality.

“In as much as we don’t condone corruption, we also do not support yellow journalism, and journalists should not allow themselves to be used to propagate fake news.

“We support investigative journalism but it must be objective, unbiased, and without an ulterior motive.”
The National Coordinator went ahead to petition that Nigerian Daily should make available the unaudited video clips of the alleged bribe taken to the Kano State House of Assembly and the relevant law enforcement agencies for proper investigation.

He also adjured media practitioners in the country not to engage in disseminating fake news and should always confirm their news stories from publishing to avoid heating the polity especially during an electioneering period.

NAJGG declares Ganduje’s bribery video fake

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