A former Nigerian state governor who is accused of stealing public funds while in office has ‘donated’ millions of naira to residents for Sallah celebrations.
Bello Matawalle, who lost his second term bid as Zamfara State governor and left office on 29 May, is being investigated by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, for allegedly stealing billions of naira of state funds while in office.
Apart from graft allegations, Mr Matawalle’s government also failed to pay workers’ salaries for three months.
However, on Sunday, the state’s Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tukur Danfulani, in a statement, said the ex-governor donated N200 million to his supporters in the state for Sallah celebrations.
Mr Danfulani said the beneficiaries include party members, stakeholders, women, youth groups and organisations in the state.
Mr Danfulani, who is the chairman of the distribution committee, said other beneficiaries of the support were orphans, the less privileged, Islamic scholars, media practitioners, and social media influencers and handlers.
“The gesture is aimed at assisting people to celebrate the upcoming 2023 Eid-el-Kabir festival with ease.
“The committee had already started the distribution of the money to all the beneficiaries,” he said.
Mr Danfulani, who thanked Mr Matawalle for the gesture, described it as timely, saying it will cushion the economic hardship among the citizens in the state, especially at the grassroots.
The party chairman promised that the committee would ensure that all the intended beneficiaries receive the donation before the Sallah celebration on Wednesday.
A few days before Mr Matawalle left office as Zamfara governor, the EFCC said it was investigating him for diverting N70 billion from the state treasury.
“The real issue with Matawalle is that he is being investigated by the EFCC, over allegations of corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over N70 billion,” said Osita Nwajah, EFCC’s Director of Public Affairs.
The ex-governor, in response during an interview, accused the now suspended EFCC Chairman, Abdurrashid Bawa, of asking for a $2 million bribe from him, an allegation the EFCC said was untrue.
When he was in office, Mr Matawalle also failed to pay Zamfara State workers three months’ salaries for March, April and May. While some workers were paid in February, several others were not paid for the same month, making it four months for some of the workers.
No reasons were officially given for the failure to pay the salaries.
Last month, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Sani Halliru, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the Matawalle administration owed workers three months’ salaries.
“The situation we are in in Zamfara State now is that we’ve workers who have not been paid their salaries for two months. In fact, these workers are in the majority and they cover both state and local governments.
These people have not been paid for February and March. Some workers were paid in February but they were a minority. When you compare the number of workers and those paid in February, they are not up to one out of three per cent of the whole workers,” Mr Halliru said.
However, the new Zamfara government recently paid two months’ salary arrears to the affected workers.
Like Matawalle, Like Yari
Mr Matawalle’s action of donating millions of naira to residents while he faces graft allegations is not peculiar. In fact, his predecessor as Zamfara governor, Abdulaziz Yari, is also known for such practice in one of Nigeria’s poorest states.
A few days ago, Mr Yari, now a senator, shared 500 rams to his neighbours in Talata Mafara area. He did a similar exercise during last year’s Sallah and is believed to have carried out similar actions for about 10 years. Mr Yari, like Mr Matawalle, is being probed by the EFCC for allegedly misappropriating state funds while in office. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.
- Premium Times