The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has refused to comment on viral video clips which show Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State allegedly receiving bribes in dollars from contractors.
In the videos, which were first posted by an online news medium, Daily Nigerian, Ganduje was seen receiving wads of dollar bills said to be part-payment of $5m allegedly given to him as a kickback from government contractor.
The Kano State House of Assembly had on Monday constituted a seven-man ad hoc committee to investigate and unravel the authenticity of the video.
In an earlier report also, Daily Nigerian had claimed that the video had been authenticated by experts and that security agencies had played the video for President Muhammadu Buhari to watch.
However, attempts to get the EFCC to speak on the matter since Wednesday up till Friday have proved abortive.
When contacted on the telephone, the Spokesperson for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said he would find out if the matter was under investigation and respond appropriately.
“I will find out and get back to you,” he said.
However, subsequent calls put through to Uwujaren were not answered while a text message sent to him was not replied to as of press time on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Presidency on Friday said there was little or nothing President Muhammadu Buhari could do about the viral video.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in an interview with our correspondent.
Shehu also said the governor was not accountable to the President.
He noted that the Kano State House of Assembly, that is constitutionally empowered to handle such cases, had already started investigating the matter.
The presidential spokesman said, “We all know that the governor is not accountable to the President. The House of Assembly is empowered by law to handle the case and we are all aware that the assembly has started investigating the matter.
“If we were in the military era, a military Head of State could question a military governor on matters like this. But it is not applicable in a democracy.
“The growing concern by some people has been that the anti-corruption fight at the federal level is not getting to the state and local government levels.
“But the President is helpless as far as the two other tiers of government are concerned. The President can’t force the state and local governments. He has no such powers under the constitution.”
Meanwhile, the committee constituted by the state House of Assembly to probe the authenticity of the video clip, has summoned the Daily Nigerian Editor-in-Chief, Ja’afar Ja’afar, to appear before it. The committee’s Secretary, Mujtafa Adamu Aminu, made the disclosure during an interview with journalists in Kano on Friday.
He said the committee had in a letter dated October 19, 2018, requested the Daily Nigerian boss to appear before it on Thursday, October 26, 2018 at the Assembly Complex.
According to him, the committee had already visited the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Rabi’u Yusuf, and the state Director of the Department of State Services, with a view to soliciting their support to provide security at the complex, venue of the sitting. – Punch.
