The immediate past governor of Zamfara and current  Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, on Thursday, denied in strong terms that he is not involved in the sponsorship of bandits in the state of Zamfara.

His denial comes amidst allegations made by Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, accusing him of being involved in banditry within the state.

In a statement by his media team, the Minister  denied the allegation, insisting that the Zamfara state Governor has consistently attempted to tarnish his reputation by linking him to banditry.

The statement, signed by Dayemi Saka, read in parts: “Our attention has been drawn to a video shared on the X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook page in which baseless, malicious, unfounded, mischievous and deliberate concocted lies were told against the Honourable Minister of State for Defense, H.E Dr. Bello Muhammed Matawalle.

“We are not unmindful of the sustained attacks on the person, integrity, and patriotic sense of duty of our client.

“What we find disheartening and despicable is the brazen disregard for public safety and national security.

“While the video speaks to its discredibility, it is pertinent to address the outlandish allegations made by Bello Turji, a wanted kingpin of banditry.

“It is noteworthy that the efforts of the honourable minister of state, while as Governor of Zamfara State between 2019 and 2023, saw banditry and all other sundry of criminality tackled head-on.

“His demonstration of the strength of Character by insisting he was not going to negotiate with Bandits after the closure of the amnesty window for them to lay down their arms, and strong insistence of Bello Turji doing such is enough motivation for the hatchet man job is he doing.”

The statement added, “All arms seized, recovered, and received from bandits were submitted at Government House Gusau, and there is a record for it.

“The Government House does not have armoury, and it is also on record that the cache of arms was handed over to relevant security agencies of government.

“Anyone with basic knowledge of psychoanalysis of a terrorist and deranged mind like Turji will know that he is engaging in ‘victim mentality.’”

Turji linked the escalation of banditry in Zamfara and other states in the northwestern part of the country to the policies rolled out by the administration of Matawalle when he was governor.

Recall that in the video, the bandit kingpin had said, “Any person living in Shinkafi, Zurmi (Zamfara State) and Isa (Sokoto State) cannot deny this claim.

“There is a particular group of bandits whom the former governor pampered. I chased the group from Shinkafi, I killed their leader, Dudu, for peace to reign in Shinkafi. The group had 200 arms, but the governor later hosted them (Dudu’s boys) at the Government House.

“But the government failed to ask the group to surrender their weapons. Another group led by Bashari Maniya has over 300 guns” he said.