Matawalle, Yari, Others Borrowed Money to Steal in Zamfara, Says Gov Lawal

The New Diplomat
Writer

Ad

The Gift of Hindsight: What I Would Tell My Younger Self, By Johnson Babalola

By Johnson Babalola @jbdlaw Hindsight, they say, is life’s most generous teacher—but it sends its lessons late. It is only after the storms that the patterns become clear; only after the wrong turns that the map begins to make sense. As I celebrate another birthday today and have grown older, I often find myself reflecting…

Gasoline Prices Drop Toward Pandemic-Era Lows

The national average price of gasoline dropped below $3 a gallon over the weekend. GasBuddy has predicted that prices will go even lower in the coming weeks, with good prospects of motorists enjoying sub-$3 prices for extended periods. This drop is overwhelmingly being driven by the significant increase in oil production from OPEC throughout 2025.…

Alleged Christian Genocide Claim is Damaging Nigeria’s Image– Tuggar Laments

By Abiola Olawale Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has voiced concern over what he described as the damaging impact of the "Christian genocide" narrative on Nigeria's international image. This is as the Minister claimed that the country's complex security challenges are being falsely simplified as religious persecution. Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit…

Ad

  • I Met Only N4m in Govt Account

By Kolawole Ojebisi

The governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal, has stated that he’s averse to borrowing money from international and other financial institutions as a conduit for siphoning public funds.

Lawal made this claim when asked how much he had borrowed since assuming office during an interview with the Dailytrust on Wednesday published on the news platform’s website today.

He said, “Let me make it categorically clear, I, Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, has not borrowed a single kobo from any financial institution since assuming office. Today is June 18 2025, and I remain financially okay.

“There’s nothing wrong with borrowing if you have projects to show for it. But I am against borrowing just to steal. As we speak, I’m still repaying debts from the previous administration. I can show you the documents—N1.5 billion in direct deductions, now reduced to N1.118 billion from the last FAAC allocation.

“We were owing N1.6 billion to KEDCO for electricity. When I came in, the government offices had no power. I paid that debt. There was not even one official car for the governor when I assumed office. Our liaison office in Kaduna was in litigation—I paid N600 million to retrieve it. We’re still fixing the Abuja liaison office, but it’s not a priority because I already have a place in Abuja.

“Again, I haven’t borrowed, and I don’t plan to. But if the need arises in the future, we’ll consider it. Right now, we are financially stable”.

While lamenting how borrowing by his predecessors affected the size of the treasury and magnitude of challenges bequeathed to him, Lawal said, “Let me tell you what hit me the most when I took over. First, there was a four-month salary backlog—deliberately created.

“But when I checked the treasury, there was no money. And when I tell people that I met N4 million, they laugh. But it’s a fact. I was a banker.”

Although Lawal did not mention names, you will recall that his two successive predecessors, Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari and Bello Matawalle, have alleged cases of financial misconduct hanging around their necks.

Yari’s alleged case is in connection with N22 billion Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) fund purportedly executed together with former Accountant-general of the federation, Ahmed Idris.

Matawalle, in his own case, has a pending allegation of embezzling over N528 billion during his tenure before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

The anti-graft agency swung into action following a petition submitted by the All Progressives Congress Young Leaders Alliance (APC-YLA) against Matawalle.

Ad

X whatsapp