The Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, has blamed his inability to gain a second term in office on his resistance to the naira redesign program of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Matawalle of the All Progressives Congress was defeated by Dauda Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party in the March 18 gubernatorial election in Zamfara State.
Speaking in an interview with DW Hausa, on Thursday, the governor stated, “What’s being claimed is that we went to the court over new naira notes designs. They claimed me, Ganduje and El-Rufai will be punished accordingly.”
Additionally, he fumed that more military men were sent to Zamfara State during the elections than when bandits had the state by the throat.
“We have had security difficulties in Zamfara State, and we’ve been begging them to deploy the military to us, but they didn’t.
“But three days before the (governorship) poll, they dispatched over 300 trucks bringing the military into Zamfara. Such a tremendous amount of troops! If they could send them to us to combat insecurity, that would be great. But they only sent them during elections.”
The governor accused the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), of pressuring the Zamfara voters into voting for the opposition party, PDP via excessive military presence.
“There were about 50 troops in our polling unit in Zamfara. They were very upfront about it that anyone voting for APC would not be permitted to vote.
“When I observed that (the huge deployment of troops), I knew they were up to something. That was why it didn’t disturb me since I had intelligence information on what they were going to do against me. Not just me but other governors who did anything that is regarded as wrong.
“People were hounded and abused because they wanted to vote for the APC. We all have this proof on video. When we summoned troops to come to our help, they didn’t arrive. But I have given everything to God,” Matawalle stated.
He, however, said despite his defeat on the ballot, the victory of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was ample consolation for him.
“We delivered Zamfara State for the APC during the presidential election. But we lost the governorship. Yet, we are thrilled with his emergence. If he didn’t win it would have been more terrible for us. But I am not scared at all,” he remarked.
As of the time of reporting this report, the President’s Special Advisor and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, respectively, could not be contacted.
