The Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Matawalle, has reacted to allegations of facilitating banditry made against him by his successor, Zamfara State’s Governor Dauda Lawal.
Lawal had alleged that Matawalle was fully involved in banditry activities as the State Governor.
Making the allegation on Wednesday, September 18, in an interview with Television Continental (TVC), Lawal demanded that Matawalle resign his position as Minister, and that the appointment was unfair to the people of the state.
However, Matawalle’s office has rubbished the allegation, stating that Lawal was not making the accusation for the first time, but that the Minister has consistently denied it.
Matawalle’s office referred newsmen to a statement previously made by his media consultants, denying his involvement in banditry or terrorist activities, following a similar allegation in a video by wanted Bandit’s kingpin, Bello Turji.
The statement, signed by Dayemi Saka, Lead Partner at Lambert and Curtis, read in parts: “Our attention has been drawn to a video shared on the X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook page in which baseless, malicious, unfounded, mischievous and deliberate concocted lies were told against the Honourable Minister of State for Defense, H.E Dr. Bello Muhammed Matawalle.
“We are not unmindful of the sustained attacks on the person, integrity, and patriotic sense of duty of our client.
“What we find disheartening and despicable is the brazen disregard for public safety and national security.
“While the video speaks to its discredibility, it is pertinent to address the outlandish allegations made by Bello Turji, a wanted kingpin of banditry.
“It is noteworthy that the efforts of the honourable minister of state, while as Governor of Zamfara State between 2019 and 2023, saw banditry and all other sundry of criminality tackled head-on.
“His demonstration of the strength of Character by insisting he was not going to negotiate with Bandits after the closure of the amnesty window for them to lay down their arms, and strong insistence of Bello Turji doing such is enough motivation for the hatchet man job is he doing.
“All arms seized, recovered, and received from bandits were submitted at Government House Gusau, and there is a record for it.
“The Government House does not have armoury, and it is also on record that the cache of arms was handed over to relevant security agencies of government.
The current Governor alleged that Matawalle, as Governor, kept some bandits in the Zamfara State Government House.
Lawal said, “There were a lot of issues in the past with my predecessor. In fact, let me say this is very categorical. If I were him, I would resign and face all the allegations against me. And that would have been more honorable because from all the information we’re getting, my predecessor was fully involved in some of these banditry issues.
“Typical is the fact that there was a permanent secretary when his children were abducted; it was unfortunate that he had to pay ransom through the government house. And it was also very clear based on all the allegations that bandits were being kept at government house. You know, there are so many issues.”
