A former Commissioner of Information in Zamfara State, Ibrahim Dosara, has dismissed the allegations against the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.
Naijaonpoint reports that Matawalle is being linked to banditry amid the escalation of insecurity in the country.
Reacting, Dosara, in a statement on Sunday, described the allegations as politically motivated.
He questioned why the allegations were rising at a time when the country is making a fresh push to tackle insecurity.
Dosara stated that the accusations have been repeatedly investigated without resulting in any indictment or official finding.
According to him, individuals who have made the claims over the years, including former aides and political rivals, have not pursued formal complaints through law enforcement agencies, anti-corruption bodies, or the courts.
Dosara said, “The allegations hurled at Dr. Matawalle have been part of Zamfara’s political theatre since 2019. They have been investigated, revisited, and subjected to scrutiny without producing a single indictment, charge, or official recommendation of wrongdoing.
“If any of the individuals cited, former aides with grievances, political opponents seeking relevance, or clerics influenced by partisan tensions, possessed credible evidence, the law provides clear avenues: the police, the intelligence agencies, the EFCC or ICPC, or a court of competent jurisdiction.
“Yet none has ever taken this path. Instead, the accusations survive only as sound bites, weaponised and recycled whenever political motivations demand it. In a constitutional democracy, due process, not speculation, remains the only acceptable test of integrity.”
Dosara stated that the portrayal of Matawalle’s administration in Zamfara has been distorted, noting that the administration has expanded security deployments and strengthened intelligence coordination.
According to him, dialogue with armed groups was at the time supported by federal officials and security experts across the northern region. He explained that the strategy was abandoned when intelligence agencies assessed that it was no longer effective.
“Most importantly, the so-called “dialogues” now twisted out of context were, at the time, a nationally endorsed strategy recommended by security experts, northern elders, and federal authorities. Nearly every state in the Northwest and North-Central experimented with similar models,” he said.
© 2025 Naijaonpoint, a division of NOP Media Inc. Contact us via [email protected]