A High Court in Kano has ordered the Kano State House of Assembly to stop the probe of the state’s governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, over alleged bribery.
The House of Assembly is currently investigating the veracity of the video published by an online newspaper, Daily Nigerian, allegedly showing Ganduje collecting bribe from a contractor.
The order was given following a suit to that effect by a group, Lawyers For Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria.
The ex parte application was by the national co-ordinator of the group, Muhammad Zubair.
In the ruling, Justice A.T Badamasi ordered that the probe should be suspended.
The court gave the respondents in the case four days within which to respond to the application, just as it ordered the parties involved to ‘maintain status quo ante’ pending the hearing of the motion on notice.
Joined in the suit as defendants are Kano State Hose of Assembly, the House Committee probing the case and the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state.
The Kano State House of Assembly set up a committee to probe the case of bribery against the governor.
Jaafar Jaafar, publisher of the Daily Nigerian has appeared before the committee and insisted that the video was genuine.
He also offered to make available, the unedited version of the video.
The committee has summoned the governor too, but he refused to appear, sending two of his commissioners to represent him.
He claimed he was attending to a pressing issue at the State House at the time.
He, however, in a statement he submitted to the committee, insisted that there was no truth in the bribery claim against him.
