JUST IN: Bribery Video: Court Dismisses Case Against Ganduje for Lack of Evidence

By Ibraheem Sadiq- December 16, 2019

A Federal High Court in Kano on Monday dismissed a bribery suit against Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for lack of evidence.

The court dismissed a suit filed by a Kano based lawyer Bulama Bukarti seeking an order of the court compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for allegedly receiving a kickback from a contractor.

The Judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence.

Recall that Bulama had approached the court seeking for an order compelling the EFCC to provide report of its forensic investigation analysis of the said video allegedly showing Ganduje receiving kickback from an unknown contractor.
Justice Egwuatu dismissed the case on the grounds that the evidence before the court has not shown that the EFCC has the record of the forensic analysis of the bribery video allegations, noting that the report ought to be given to the Kano state House of Assembly ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the matter.

Justice Egwuatu ruled that even though where the affidavit deposed to, is not countered, it is deemed admitted, the evidence therein must be cogent and verifiable.

The judge averred that the provisions of Freedom of Information Act 2011, required that information requested must be a public record and in the custody of the instruction of organization so requested from.

It would also be recalled that, the Editor-in-chief of Daily Nigerian, Jaafar Jaafar, in 2018 released videos showing the governor allegedly collecting bribes in dollars and stuffing the money in his attire.

Ganduje insisted that he was not the person captured, saying the clips were photoshopped. He also filed a N3 billion libel suit against the newspaper and its editor.