Governor slams Tinubu’s Minister as sponsor of Bandits, asks him to resign from office

Governor slams Tinubu’s Minister as sponsor of Bandits, asks him to resign from office

Dauda Lawal, the Zamfara State Governor has urged the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, to voluntarily step down to address accusations of bandit sponsorship and money laundering during his tenure as governor.

In an interview with TVC on Wednesday, Lawal emphasised that if his predecessor, Matawalle still values his integrity, he should respectfully resign and face the multiple allegations brought against him.

While reacting to allegations against Matawalle, Lawal said: “If I were him (Matawalle), I would resign and face all the allegations (insecurity & money laundering) against me. Because from all the information we’re getting, my predecessor (Matawalle) was fully involved in some of this banditry issue,” Lawal said.

Lawal also alleged that Matawalle looted the state’s resources, leaving the treasury empty.

In a previous interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Lawal revealed that upon taking office, he discovered that over N250 billion had gone unaccounted for during Matawalle’s administration.

God Lawal added that: “EFCC made a pronouncement sometime around May 21, 2023, or there about that it was alleging that N70 billion was stolen. That means before I took over. By the time I took over, I realized that that N70 billion they mentioned was a child’s play,” he said.

“So far based on available records, we realized over N250 billion was not accounted for. It is very funny. Let me explain to you the state I inherited. I inherited a very dysfunctional state. When I took over there was no N4 million in Zamfara State Government account – just empty.

“There was a backlog of salaries for four months. For three years. none of Zamfara’s indigenes wrote either WAEC or NECO. I had to settle N1.3 billion for NECO and N1.6 billion for WAEC. Some of the students got their certificates after we settled WAEC and NECO.”