Matawalle was not sacked because allegations of him being involved in banditry have been proven to be untrue – Bayo Onanuga

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has stated that allegations linking the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle, to banditry in the North-West have been investigated and proven false.

Matawalle, the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, had been accused of involvement in bandit activities by his successor, Dauda Lawal. However, in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, October 23, Onanuga explained that Matawalle was not dismissed because the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) thoroughly investigated the claims and found them baseless.

“As far as I know, most of those things are just mere allegations. In one of them, I got something like that and sent it to the NSA and asked: ‘Have you heard about this?’

“The NSA said: ‘No. We have probed a lot of those things; they are not true’. People are just bringing out all kinds of fake things and allegations. That is why the man (Matawalle) is still in the cabinet.

The president, I’m sure, has heard many stories about him. For him to be there shows that… like I have said, some of those things have been probed; they have been found not to be true.

The NSA office has already investigated some of those allegations. There are mere fabrication.” Onanuga said