Court orders Ganduje to pay N800,000 to Daily Nigerian publisher

A Kano State High Court has ordered the state Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, to pay N800,000 to the publisher of an online newspaper, Daily Nigerian, Ja’afar Ja’afar, over the viral dollar bribery video.

A series of the secretly recorded videos in 2018 had shown a figure alleged to be Ganduje pocketing wads of dollars allegedly taken as kickbacks.

The governor had denied the videos, saying they were doctored.

He blamed it on mischief makers who were bent on tarnishing his reputation.

He had also gone to the court in an attempt to clear his name, while asking the publisher to pay N3 billion in damages.

On June 28, 2021, the governor filed an application at the court through his counsel, Offiong Offiong, seeking to discontinue the case.

During the hearing of the case on Tuesday, counsel to Ja’afar, Utum Eteng and counsel to Penlight Media Limited, publisher of Daily Nigerian, MB Azumi, did not object to the application, but demanded the sum of N400 million as part of terms to discontinue the suit.

The lawyers also demanded an apology, which they said should be published in national dailies, as well as a pre-action letter.

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Suleiman Na-mallam, granted the sum of N400,000 each to Ja’afar and his company.