*Matawalle says Governor Dauda Lawal committing perjury
By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The immediate past administration of former Zamfara Governor, Bello Mohammed, Matawallen Maradun has said that its attention has been drawn to yet another misleading and deceitful publication by the Zamfara State Government, where some misleading documents showing, “how former Governor and Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, approved 100% payment of over one billion Naira for fencing, landscaping, and furnishing of Governor’s lodges in 14 local government areas even before the project began.”
A statement by the Coordinator of former Governor Matawalle, Ibrahim Dosara, described as unfortunate that despite the number of consultant Professors in the Zamfara State government being led by a “(Dr)”, the team could not understand the essence of government in the protection of lives and property of citizens and to initiate projects for the development of the state, but rather leading the government in desperate faults finding, deceitful and misleading the general public, to be convinced at all cost in tarnishing the hard-earned reputation of the former Governor Matawalle.
It alleged that in his attempt to ridicule the former Governor, the present Governor, Dauda Lawal, has gone out of his way to commit perjury against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the statement released by the Dauda Lawal administration, it was said that, “the previous administration under Bello Matawalle, initiated a project to construct and furnish Governor’s Lodges in all the 14 local government areas of the state.
It said the government “noted that the documents released were evidence from an already opened can of worms exposing series of violations of public service rules by the previous government of Matawalle.”
Matawalle’s team expressed this while reacting to an earlier statement by Governor Dauda Lawal’s media team, saying, “Governor Dauda Lawal’s administration is raising public awareness of Bello Matawalle’s financial recklessness, where projects were awarded, and 100% of funds were withdrawn and disbursed for the abandoned projects.”
According to the statement, “this time around, Dauda Lawal used old pictures of various projects executed by the former Governor to deceive and mislead the general public in his latest publication that cuts across both traditional and new media platforms.
It described the action as “shameless, annoying and disappointing that a government being headed by a “(Dr)” and ran by Consultants Professors, are always into committing perjury against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, just to indict and tarnish the hard-earned reputation of a man who proved his worth and integrity before the general public, as he is being celebrated and honoured left, right and centre with various merit awards”.
“Like I have said in my previous statements regarding the Cargo Airport Project, which Dauda Lawal is desperately looking for a way to revoke and re-award same contract to himself through proxy.
In this their latest blackmail of the Lawal Dare’s administration, the government displayed its ignorance snd false claims to assassinate the character of the former Gov. Old pictures of the Local Government Lodges constructed by the former government of Bello Mohammed Matawallen Maradun were published, instead of the reality of things on ground, just to discredit the former Governor.
” It is in view of this nasty and misleading publication of Dauda Lawal Dare’s administration that I am obliged to once again describe the publication as not only malicious, without regard and respect to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but also baseless, unfounded and laughable attempt to deceive Nigerians to continue with his foreign trips to pursue private businesses in defence of Dizieni Alison Madueke currently facing corruption charges, at the expense of Zamfara people.
“I am not surprised however, as the Governor is trying to cover up his failures to discharge his primary responsibility, by diverting the attention of the general public from his incompetence in providing good governance, turning Zamfara to a killing field where bandits have resurfaced and embarked on massive attacks, killings and abduction of innocent lives. Ever since the Governor’s assumption of office, thousands of innocent people have been massacred, hundreds of thousands women and children displaced and hundreds others sustained various degrees of injuries from the attacks by bandits in the state.
” What Dauda Lawal wants is to divert the attention of the former Governor from his national assignment, so that he will be portrayed as an unserious leader.
The statement went further to explain that “the project of Local Government Lodges constructed by the immediate past administration of former Governor Matawalle is almost completed, if not for the Dauda Lawal’s order to the contractors to stop work, including arrest and detention of the contractor handling the project for over one month, through the connivance of Dauda Lawal and the former EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
“This matter is already in court before a judge for consideration.
“Attached are the latest relevant documents, pictures and information about the project for ease of reference.
The Governor also said:
“Our government is committed to rescuing, reforming, and rebuilding Zamfara. As part of this mission, we consider it an obligation to expose financial recklessness and ensure justice prevails.”
The statement questioned, “In what way? through false claims, faults finding and deceitful publications with total neglect and disregard to the lives of the people the Governor swore to protect?
” Ever since Dauda Lawal’s inauguration as Governor, he has never stayed a complete one week in the state, leaving the people at the mercy of Marauding bandits.
” It is in the public domain that ever since his assumption of office as the Gov of Zamfara state, thousands of lives have been lost and property worth billions of naira destroyed with hundreds of thousands of women and children displaced.
“This is in addition to several others who suffered various degrees of injuries they sustained from the attacks by bandits.
“Bello Matawalle’s administration tackled the ugly security challenges he inherited within the 100 days of his office, making Zamfara to witness absolute security of lives and property for over nine months.
“Bello Matawalle is not a crook and criminal leader like Dauda Lawal, who declared over 5 Billion American dollars as his assets after his retirement as Executive Director of First Bank” the statement alleges.
“This is in addition to other stocks in other foreign countries and Naira he said he owned in his assets declaration form.
“To show how crook and criminal the Governor is, just a day after we have challenged and called on the state assembly to start impeachment process against the him for gross violation of public service rules, by awarding contract for the construction of Gusau township roads to the tune of over 4 billion Naira without the approval of the state Executive Council and the state assembly, he quickly bought and released luxury cars to members of the state assembly.
“We are therefore debunking this yet another misinformation of Dauda Lawal’s administration against the former Governor Bello Matawalle.
“We are also not unaware that Dauda Lawal recently released the sum of 300,000 dollars to conduct the recent Lagos press briefing on tarnishing the image of the former Governor, calling on the President to remove him from his ministerial appointment.
“We are also not unaware of the 150 million naira released by Dauda Lawal’s administration for some hired tugs and mischievous miscreants to plan and organise a grand protest in Abuja against the minister of state for defense, calling for his removal, instead of using the state resources to support security agencies to face head-on, the security concerns facing the state.
