Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, on Wednesday denied appointing suspected terrorist and gunner, Bashir Hadejia, as a Special Adviser in his government.
Hadejia was arrested on Monday last week over alleged treason and subversion against the state. The suspect was a special adviser to the current Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle when he was the Governor of Zamfara State.
After his arrest, a letter dated October 27, 2023, purportedly signed by the Secretary to the Zamfara State Government, Mal Abubakar M. Nakwada, alleged that the state government offered an appointment to the suspected gunrunner made rounds online.
But speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the governor said the purported appointment letter was fake.
“Let me make a categorical statement here. I did not appoint Hadejia as a Special Adviser,” the governor said.
“If you look at the letter heading itself with the date, something is fishy somewhere. We issued statement that we had nothing to do with that, that was a forged letter.
“Whenever I appoint advisers, I usually tell the media that I have appointed X, Y, Z in different positions. I challenge anybody to show me where we made that kind of statement.”
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability, saying that there is nothing to hide.
During the show, the governor also spoke on the security challenges bedevilling the north-western state.
According to him, the insecurity has greatly reduced as farmers can now return to their farms.
He explained that the state government is working closely with the National Security Adviser and the Ministry of Defence for the overall good of the Zamfara people.
“The issue of insecurity is something that we inherited for over a decade and it is not something that we are going to solve overnight.
“However, we are making conscious efforts to make sure we face these security challenges head-on. It is part of the reason why we set up the Community Protection Guards last year. I will say that it has gone down drastically, quite a number of people can now go back to their farms.
“What we are doing with the CPG in conjunction with other conventional security (agencies) is to make sure that people are able to harvest their farm inputs,” Lawal said.
