Ganduje Cleared Of Corruption Charges

The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been cleared of corruption charges levied against him by a human right lawyer.

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano dismissed the charges against the state Governor leveied against by a Kano based lawyer Bulama Bukarti seeking an order of the court compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate him.

The Court dismissed the suit on the grounds of lack of substantial evidence.

It was gathered that Bulama had approached the court seeking an order to ask EFCC to provide report of its forensic investigation analysis on the said video showing Ganduje receiving bribe from an unknown contractor.

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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 added 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.”

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.

It would be recalled that a video clip showing Governor Ganduje allegedly receiving bribe from a contractor went viral ahead of the 2019 general elections.