AUSTIN OBOH
It has been a heated week for Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, who came under fire from Dauda Lawal, his predecessor, who recently linked the minister with terrorism in the country. Matawalle was alleged to have procured vehicles for bandit leaders, including Bello Turji, when he called the shots as Zamfara State governor.
Matawalle’s successor, Governor Lawal, in a recent interview on TVC, Wednesday, asked the minister to resign in order to answer the allegations of hobnobbing with terrorists, which have been made against him. “If I were him (Matawalle), I would resign and face all the allegations against me because, from all the information we are getting, my predecessor was fully involved in some of this banditry,” Governor Lawal said.
Lawal alleged that Matawalle kept terrorists at the Government House, and that ransom was paid to terrorists through the government.
According to Governor Lawal, “In May 2023, there was this allegation of misappropriation of N70bn. We realised that the N70bn was a child’s play compared to what we have. This information is before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and I wonder how this guy was cleared by the security operatives to become a minister. We are still waiting to hear from the EFCC; the case has been on for a year now. This is people’s money; we need the money in Zamfara to address the challenges we are facing.”
The minister, however, on Tuesday, denied the governor’s allegations, while on Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily, saying the allegations were unfounded just as he challenged the governor to prove them. He acknowledged that he and some of his colleagues had dialogued with the bandits to bring peace to their respective states.
He said: “It was not only me that dialogued with bandits. Remember, all the governors dialogued; the then governors of Niger State, Habu Sani Bello, and the governors of Sokoto and Katsina states did the same. Why only me? Because it is Zamfara? Zamfara is a very complex state with terrible human beings with devilish ideas. Our people are just different.”
He cited an incident of a resident arrested for cutting the throat and gauging out the eye of a person and how he ensured the criminal was brought to justice.
He also said some people in the state don’t like him because he was fearless and dealt with anyone found wanting.
“Many politicians found doing hideous acts did not like me because I went after them,” he said.
He added: “Let me remind you. When I was governor, I was the only governor who swore with the Holy Quran that I had no hand or connection with banditry and that I was not happy with what was happening. That if I was happy, if I was part of it, if I knew those doing it, or if I was collaborating with them, God should not give me one second of grace. I challenged all the politicians, including General Ali Gusau and Dauda Lawal, to do the same. None of them could take the oath, but I took it because I know I have a clean heart.”
The former governor said he made it a policy in the state for government appointees to take an oath with the Holy Qur’an that they had no connection with banditry, before holding a political office.
He challenged the governor and other politicians in the state to take the oath as he did to clean their names.
There are reports of previous allegations against the minister. For instance, an Islamic cleric, Bello Asada, had accused him of sponsoring bandits. Asada, in a video in which he spoke Hausa, alleged that Matawalle procured vehicles for Turji and other bandits.
Asada said: “You didn’t love especially because of God. Murtala Bello said your godfather has bought vehicles for terrorists, among them is this Halilu Subububu. The defence (state) minister has bought a brand new car and given it to him (is he not the one who’s called ‘Wankin Dan Kanoma’). There is also Ada Aleru.
“I know that he has purchased about 34 vehicles and distributed them to leaders of terrorists. He (Halilu) who I was accused of purchasing a car; was the Zamfara State governor who gave him a brand new 2019 model Hilux, not a second-hand car. People like Ado Aleru were given. I was with the police; Bello Turji was given. Decent people like the police, military, and civil defence who are looking for Hilux were not given, only for them to use our money to buy brand new Hiluxes for terrorists.”
AMNESTY FOR TERRORISTS PROGRAMME
As governor, Matawalle had initiated an amnesty programme for repentant terrorists (between 2019 and 2023). However, Turji, in a video in July 2024, claimed that the scheme only empowered some of his colleagues. Turji was reported to have said he killed one of the bandit leaders in his Shinkafi LGA for peace to reign but that the governor later sabotaged his efforts.
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In his words, “Any person living in Shinkafi, Zurmi, and Isa (Sokoto State) cannot deny this claim. There is a particular group of bandits whom the former governor pampered. I chased the group from Shinkafi, I killed their leader, Dudu, for peace to reign in Shinkafi. The group had 200 arms, but the governor later hosted them (Dudu’s boys) at the Government House. But the government failed to ask the group to surrender their weapons. Another group led by Bashari Maniya has over 300 guns. I seized 30 from them. Where are the remaining? And they never surrendered their weapons to the government.”
He alleged that some of the bandit leaders involved in the peace agreement moved to the Sokoto metropolis after giving their arms to their boys kidnapping for ransom. He said the boys were making returns to their leaders living in Sokoto town, and named some of them as Bashari Maniya, Kabiru, and Buhari.
Regardless, an aide to the minister, Dr Suleiman Shuaib, described the allegations as baseless, stating that Governor Lawal was out to witch-hunt his boss and smear his image. According to Shuaib, Matawalle had never sponsored banditry or terrorism either as governor or minister, adding that he was committed to securing the lives and property of the people of Zamfara State and Nigerians at large.
Shuaib explained that Matawalle only engaged in dialogue with bandits during his early days as governor, in a desperate move to restore peace and security to the state, recalling that Matawalle waged war against some of the bandits when they reneged on their promises, noting that it was wrong for anyone to use his efforts against him for political gain.
“I want to call on Nigerians, including Governor Dauda Lawal, to desist from witch-hunting their predecessors. This is a mere allegation and an act of witch-hunting. This sends a very bad message to the younger generation. It is uncalled for; I am advising Governor Lawal to stop witch-hunting his predecessor. The main objective of Governor Lawal and Matawalle is to secure and protect the lives and property of the people of Zamfara. The Governor should focus on the promises he made during his campaign instead of chasing shadows. His duty is to provide security in the state, and the major challenge we have is banditry.
“Zamfara State is on the brink of being swallowed by insecurity, and I want the governor to focus on that. He should work hand-in-hand with Matawalle to bring an end to the insecurity in Zamfara. When Matawalle became the governor of the state, the most important issue to address was insecurity. People advised him to call the bandit leaders for dialogue, and he accepted. That was when he met the bandits in Government House; he didn’t know them before. The dialogue worked for nine months before some bad actors influenced certain bandits to make outrageous demands, which Matawalle, as the governor, couldn’t meet. Those bandits took up arms again, and the Governor confronted them. He was, and is, never involved in banditry,” Shuaib said.
IN DEFENCE OF THE MINISTER
Rising in defence of the minister, the Arewa Concerns Citizens (ACC) called on President Bola Tinubu and National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to dismiss the allegations by Governor Lawal, describing them as politically motivated and without substance.
In a statement, Comrade Mansur Abubakar, the Coordinator of the ACC, expressed concerns over what he termed “the politicization of Zamfara’s security challenges.”
He urged both the President and NSA Ribadu to recognize Lawal’s accusations as a ploy to tarnish Matawalle’s legacy and gain political leverage ahead of the 2027 elections.
“Zamfara’s security and the well-being of its people should not be reduced to mere tools for political ambition,” Kaura said, adding, “Leaders must act in the interest of the people, not for personal gain.”
Mansur highlighted the success of initiatives led by Matawalle, including the elimination of notorious bandits such as Halilu Sububu, Kachalla Sani black, Kachalla Makore and Baleri Fakai which he credited with restoring a fragile peace to Zamfara and neighboring states.
Another former governor of the state, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, and a group known as the Zamfara Elders Support for Peace and Development, similarly urged the governor to shift his focus from attacking Matawalle to instead concentrate on effective governance and addressing the state’s security issues.
In a statemen, Senator Yari advised Lawal to emulate his predecessors, including Matawalle, who faced the security challenges in Zamfara and did their best to address them.
Regardless, the Zamfara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday called on the All Progressives Congress (APC) to respond to the allegations of mismanagement of public funds made by the incumbent state government against the immediate past administration under Bello Matawalle.
In a statement on Tuesday, Haliru Andi, the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, called on the APC in Zamfara State to respond directly to the allegations made by the incumbent PDP administration under Governor Lawal against Matawalle.
“Instead of addressing the critical issues at hand, the APC has opted to deflect by criticising Governor Lawal for highlighting 25 years of APC misrule. We challenge the APC to engage with the facts and tell the public that the allegations labeled against Matawalle are untrue,” Andi, the PDP spokesperson in the state, said in the statement.
He stated that no amount of diversionary antics would make the PDP and Governor Lawal to relent in their pursuit of justice for the people of Zamfara regarding the alleged embezzlement of public funds under Matawalle’s administration.
“We urge the APC to address the issues directly rather than continuing their pattern of evasion. The people of Zamfara deserve accountability and transparency, and the PDP will persist in our demand for justice,” the PDP said.
Although the allegations and denials threw more light on the activities of terrorists in Zamfara and other parts of the North, no tangible revelation has yet been made concerning the roles being played by political actors in the ongoing war. More revelations would be useful in bringing the abnormality called terrorism or banditry to an end.
