The special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Bayo Onanuga has said that allegations connecting Bello Matawalle to the wave of banditry in the north-west have been found to be false.
He (Matawalle) is the minister of state for defence. He was left on as Tinubu reshuffled his cabinet on October 23.
Whilst speaking in an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday, Onanuga said that Matawalle, was not fired because the office of the national security adviser (NSA) probed allegations bordering on his links to bandits and found them to be untrue.
The former Zamfara governor has repeatedly been accused of working in partnership with bandits in Nigeria’s north-west.
Dauda Lawal, the current governor of Zamfara, had also explained how the government house was allegedly used to pay ransom for children of a permanent secretary at the time Matawalle was the state governor.
He said if he were Matawalle, he would resign from the federal cabinet and focus on clearing his name.
Whilst responding to him, Matawalle said he has no connection with bandits terrorising the state, saying that he had sworn by the Quran.
Mr Onanuga said the allegations against the minister were “mere fabrication” and politically stimulated.
“As far as I know, most of those things are just mere allegations,” the president’s aide said.
“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.”