The Kano State Government has denied plans to ban women from driving automobiles, amid reports trending on social media.
Some yet-to be verified reports claimed that the state government in collaboration with the state’s Council of Ulama have concluded plans to send the bill prohibiting women from driving, to the House of Assembly.
But making the clarification via a statement issued on Thursday, the State Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, said the government had at no time contemplated on such a matter.
Garba dismissed the report, saying it cannot be traced to any credible news platform and was nothing but the imaginary thinking of the authors.
Garba noted that Saudi Arabia which had for decades restricted women from driving, lifted the ban in 2018.
See the full statement issued by the Commissioner below:
“Kano rebuts trending story on women driving ban
Kano state government has described as fallacious a trending story on social media platforms on a purported plan to officially disallow women regardless of any faith from getting behind the wheel.
The state commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba who made the clarification in a statement issued on Thursday, said government had at no time contemplate on the matter.
He said the story, which could not be traced to any credible source, was nothing but the imaginary thinking of the authors.
“The trending story lacks any credibility and that is why it is wholly attributed to a source that cannot be substantiated,’’ it added.
Malam Garba pointed out that if at all there was such plan, the state government does not have to be involved in any secretive meeting to decide on a critical issue that has to do its teeming populace.
The commissioner stated further that even Saudi Arabia which for decades had laws that sanctioned women from driving has, after all, lifted the ban in 2018.
He said it was interesting that some of the scholars quoted to have supported the alleged ban have already dissociated themselves from the story.
MALAM MUHMMAD GARBA
Hon. Commissioner for Information, Kano State.”
