The Governor Dauda Lawal-led Zamfara State Government has again questioned former Governor Bello Matawalle’s appointment as Minister of State for Defence, saying someone who gave VIP treatment to bandits should not be occupying such a sensitive office.
There has been a war of words between the incumbent administration and Matawalle’s camp, especially over the latter’s stewardship as governor and security challenges bedevilling the state.
In a widely shared opinion article, Ibrahim Dosara, a former Commissioner for Information in Matawalle’s administration, accused Lawal of focusing attention on the former governor to divert the public’s attention from the failure of his administration to deal with the current escalating security challenges.
However, the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Abdulmalik Gajam, berated the previous administration, saying Matawalle preferred to donate vehicles to bandits rather than make any investment in mass transit.
Gajam, who spoke in an X interview hosted by Chief Executive Officer of Arewa Twitter, Abdullahi Otaki, said, “Recently, the governor cried out that there was a move with the Federal Government to negotiate with bandits. Why did you think that was happening? Now, someone who did not pay the school fees of up to 40,000 young people wants to come and negotiate with bandits.
“How can someone who granted asylum to bandits be a Minister of Defence? He was distributing Hilux vans to bandits but could not invest in mass transit for the people of his state.”
“The legacy that the past governor left is that he bought Hilux vehicles and dashed them to bandits,” he also said in the interview.
“We have evidence. He granted asylum at the Government House to bandits. Even in the barbaric era, there has never been a time when an emir or a king granted asylum to somebody who killed other people without hesitation, kidnapped them for ransom and raped their girls. Are these people to sit on the tables with?”
The commissioner recounted how the Matawalle administration abandoned some bulletproof vehicles procured with the Federal Government’s assistance in the state.
“Most of them were bulletproof tankers. When we came into the office, we met them with flat tyres. This means they were not serviced at all. But all these were provided for and removed from the state purse.
“It is in our government that we have said we would pay the police and army their earned allowances and service their vehicles so we would be able to protect our people. That was what we met. That is Zamfara State as we speak,” Gajam said.