The Deputy Governorship Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso, has given the newly appointed Kano State Commissioner for Information 48 hours to withdraw alleged defamatory statements against him and tender a public apology.
Kwankwaso, a former Kano State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, issued a statement on Tuesday warning that failure to comply would leave him with no option but to seek legal redress through his lawyers.
He described the allegations made by the commissioner during a media program as false, malicious, and intended to damage his reputation.
The commissioner had reportedly accused him of visiting several rehabilitation centers across the world and claimed that he was the reason his father, former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, established the Kiru Reformatory Institute.
Reacting to the claims, Mustapha dismissed them as false, insisting that the institute was established as a government policy during his father’s second term as governor while he was living in Dubai.
He described the institution as a visionary initiative designed to reform, rehabilitate, and reintegrate young people into society, adding that reducing its establishment to a personal family matter was an insult to the people of Kano.
Kwankwaso also questioned whether the allegations were the commissioner’s personal invention or if he was acting on behalf of his principal, noting that the office of the Commissioner for Information should be used to inform the public rather than engage in character assassination and falsehoods.
According to him, “My attention has been drawn to a program in which the spokesperson to the Governor and newly appointed Commissioner for Information of Kano State accused me of having been to several rehabilitation centers across the world, and of being the reason my father established the Kiru Reformatory Institute.”
“I wish to state categorically and unequivocally that these allegations are false, malicious, and a deliberate attempt to assassinate my character and distract the people of Kano from real issues of governance.”
“The claim that Kiru Reformatory Institute was established because of me is not only false, it is historically impossible. Throughout the second term of my father, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as Governor of Kano State when the Kiru Reformatory Institute was established, I was far away in Dubai.”
“Kiru was established as a visionary state policy to reform, rehabilitate, and reintegrate young people and give them a second chance in life, a policy that has helped thousands of Kano youths. To reduce such a noble institution to a personal family matter is an insult to the people of Kano and to the young men whose lives were transformed there.”
“The spokesperson described my appointment as Commissioner of Youth and Sports as ‘executive rehabilitation.’ My father has mentored me, trained me, and raised me to be independent. He did not raise me to depend on him for handouts.”
“I hereby give the Commissioner for Information 48 hours from today to withdraw his false statement in full, and to tender an unreserved public apology to me, my family, and the people of Kano. Failure to do so, he should expect to hear from my lawyers.”
