The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been caught in a video clip allegedly receiving bribe amounting to about $5million from contractors in the state.
According to reports, contractors had told DAILY NIGERIAN that the governor personally receives between 15 to 25 per cent kickbacks for every project executed in the state.
Newsheadline247 understands that the sting operation to capture the governor on camera began two years ago when one of the contractors agreed to plant spy camera on his kaftan lapel while offering the bribe.
For about 10 months, efforts to capture the bribe giving and taking scenes, the governor’s face and body were reportedly clearly captured in nine clips, while six others did not clearly reveal the governor’s face.
Information has it that about $5m dollars were allegedly delivered to the governor in all as bribes.
One of the contractors, who preferred not to be named, was reported as saying the reason he released the footage was to expose corruption and bring sanity to the country.
“If my aim is to blackmail or extort the governor, I would have used the videos to get over a billion settlement or force the governor to pay the hundreds of millions of naira the state is owing my company or force him to pay back all the money I paid him as kickbacks,” he said.
“We believe if public office holders are exposed, there will be sanity in the system even if I will not be the beneficiary in future.”
In its reaction to the trending video and news, the Kano government claimed that the video was cloned.
“We wish to state that there is no iota of truth to these allegations and if indeed there is any such alleged video, it is at best cloned,” the Kano state commissioner for information, Muhammad Garba, said in a statement.
“The government of Kano state is taking this matter seriously, and will exploit every appropriate and legal avenue to ensure that it gets to the root of the matter and the perpetrators are brought to book.”
