A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State, Dr Suleiman Shu’aibu Shinkafi, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently declare a state of emergency in Zamfara state. The party chieftain was of the view that the only solution to the lingering insecurity challenges in the state is to relieve the Governor of the state of his position, following what he described as failure to secure the lives and properties of the citizens. Shinkafi claimed that the governor had not been discharging his primary responsibility.
Dr. Shinkarfi made this known while addressing journalists recently in Kaduna, where he also disclosed that Zamfara state is at a comatose state. The Chieftain who was a Special Adviser to the then Governor of Zamfara state, Dr Bello Muhammad Matawalle alleged that the local vigilante that was established in the state are not doing what they are supposed to do. He said instead they are engaging in killing the innocent people of the state.
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His words: “Today in Zamfara state, everybody is running to secure his or her life, even the Governor is running to secure his life. He doesn’t spend days in Zamfara; for instance he returned alongside other northern governors from America on security summit, but he has returned, so you see he is afraid to stay in his state because it is insecure.
“So, we are calling on President Tinubu to temper Justice with mercy, he knew how Zamfara welcomed him when he was campaigning, in fact, we gave him the highest vote in North West and Matawalle was his North-West Campaign Coordinator and he sacrificed all he has to ensure that Tinubu won that election and now that Zamfara is not secured for the people of the state. We implore the President to use his power to impose a state of emergency on Zamfara State just like Obasanjo did during Joshua Dariye in Plateau state.”
On the allegation of corruption levelled against the Minister of State for Defence, Matawalle, the APC chieftain said, those behind all forms of protests were being sponsored by some elements who do not want good for the country.
While debunking the allegation of corrupt practices, he further explained that: “I want to categorically tell you that those people were hired to do what they are doing. It was a sponsored and coordinated act, just to defame my principal’s character for their interest.
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“There was no need to go to the EFCC to protest and remind them about Bello Matawalle’s case, if at all there was any, everyone knows that if we go by the cases everyone has, the whole country will be put to a stop. So, I believe why they are putting Matawalle on the watch is because there are some enemies of the country who do not want us to progress or do not want the Minister to do his work just as he has started on a good note.
He continued: ” There’s no need for people to sponsor faceless groups to protest against anybody, the President has appointed Hadiza Bala Usman to checkmate the affairs of these Ministers, then she should be allowed to do her job. If you say EFCC should revisit Matawalle’s case, then who told you he stole money. I was part and parcel of his government and I know he left N11 billion in Zamfara State treasury, alongside houses, hotels and shares, but now they are accusing him that he stole about 700 billion Naira. Then I ask where did Zamfara get that huge amount of money when it’s total allocation is just N4 billion.
