The Zamfara State Government has described the legacy left by former Governor Bello Matawalle as buying vehicles for bandits.
The State’s commissioner for budget and planning, AbdulMalik Gajam, in an interview hosted by the Chief Executive Officer of Arewa Twitter, Abdullahi Otaki, on X (formerly Twitter), noted that Matawalle, who is the current Minister of State for Defence under President Bola Tinubu’s government, failed to make any investment in mass transit while gifting vehicles to terrorists.
Gajam 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”.
He further said, “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?”
He lamented that when Matawalle got into office, the Nigerian government assisted Zamfara government to procure some bullet-proof vehicles for the state. Gajam said the vehicles were abandoned by Matawalle’s administration.
However, the Zamfara State Government had in 2021 denied ever giving cash gifts and Toyota Hilux vehicles to repentant bandits who turned themselves in.
The Matawalle-led administration had at that time made the rebuttal in a statement by the spokesperson to then Governor Bello Matawalle, Zailani Bappa.
