By Benjamin Orisemeke
A group under the aegis of the Nigerian Alliance For Justice And Good Governance (NAJGG), has insisted that the video being circulated on the social media of Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje receiving kickback from an unidentified contractor as cloned.
The National Coordinator of NAJGG, Mr. Cyril Obande, who said this at a world press conference on the alleged bribe taken by the Kano state governor, further called on security agents to conduct a proper investigation in a bid to unraveling the authenticity of the video.
It will be recalled that a video of governor Ganduje hit the media space, and it has since gone viral with the main opposition party, People Democratic party (PDP), making a feast of the video.
“That purported video being circulated on the social media, from our preliminary checks, showed clearly that it’s a cloned video. We demand that the online medium 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.”
According to the socio-political group, the originator of the report “Jaafar Jaafar should be bold to come out and provide the names of the contractors who gave the kick-back, the names of the contracts for which the alleged kick-back was taken, and he should tell the world the total worth of that contract.
“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,” he added.
While saying that stressing that it does not condone corruption, Mr. Obande, said “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.
“This fabricated video is published with the intent to mislead people in order to diminish the popular support Ganduje has been enjoying over the years. It is very disheartening that fake news has increased in post-truth politics.”
The grouped noted that the video is set out to tarnish the hard earned reputation of the Kano State governor.
“It is on record that Governor Ganduje has reformed and modernised public administration and service provision coupled with improvements in governance, provides greater accountability and coherence, increased responsiveness to citizens’ needs, adherence to the rule of law, and raises efficiency and expertise,” he added.
He called on media practitioners not to engage in disseminating fake news, urging them to always verify their news sources before publishing to avoid heating up the polity especially during an electioneering period.
