Zamfara Gov. Lawal must tell Nigerians how he made N9trn declared before CCB – CSO

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Coalition of Civil Society Organisation for Good Governance on Tuesday challenged the Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal to tell Nigerians and the world how he made the trillions of naira he declared before the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

There have been reports that the Zamfara governor declared assets worth $5 billion before the CCB, amounting to about N9 trillions.

The CSO, at a news conference in Lagos, also called on the CCB to make open the assets declared by Lawal, vowing that if nothing was done, it would be compelled to approach the court to get it done.

Olufemi Lawson, General Secretary, Campaign for Democracy (CD), who read the speech on behalf of others, said the civil society organisations decided to beam its searchlight on Zamfara because despite the availability of gold and other mineral resources, in large quantities,  the people of the state had not been able to benefit substantially from this God-given resources.

“The security issues and underdevelopment have put the state in a state of comatose. Why is it that terrorism has remained unabated in Zamfara? Who are the beneficiaries of this mindless bloodletting? These  posers we need to interrogate further. Now enter Mr Dauda Lawal. It’s an open secret that when Mr Lawal was sworn in, the news was everywhere that he’s worth $5bn and N1bn in nine banks. $5bn?

“This emboldens the conviction in us that the news that he, Gov. Dauda Lawal declared assets worth N9trn is true which he only denied when the uproar and public scrutiny was huge and resounding,” he stated.

According to Lawson, the African richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is worth $15bn with his assets, and that Lawal is worth $5bn without any known companies or major breakthroughs in new invention or technology.

“How did he make his money? From the information we gathered,  Mr. Lawal had declared such humongous amount to the code of conduct bureau as part of the enabling laws to take over as state governor.

“Now,  our challenge now is that it is incumbent on Mr Lawal to lead by example. What we are now asking, is for Mr Lawal to tell the world how he made his money and details of his asset declaration, before the Code of Conduct Bureau.

“We don’t want to hear the usual refrain after his exit when he’s been called to account that he didn’t enter a government a pauper. The era of humongous wealth without enterprise is gone forever. We want to know how he  made his trillions so that other governors who are super rich will also follow suit,” he said.

He explained that the CSO was doing this because Nigeria is now in a precarious situation more than ever, saying that the debt issues and economic crises the nation is faced with required that “we do our best.”

“We want to appreciate our media friends in this campaign for doing a yeoman job. We want you to do more because we owe it as a collective duty to the incoming generation that in view of economic crisis that our leaders had plunged us in due to their indiscretion,  it will not be business as usual anymore.

“You also know how difficult it is to obtain information despite the passage of FIA. Most of the time, we had to depend on inside sources to get information. It is an open secret that politicians over time have monetized the political system and unless we do a proper check, we may wake up one day  to see kidnappers, bandits, Yahoo Yahoo Boys  and Boko Haram leaders occupying our government houses, since it’s all about money and nothing else,” he added.

Lawson lamented that the level of bloodletting and killings in Zamfara is mind-boggling, and that there was need to put an end to this dastardly act.

“We also want to urge the international community to beam its searchlight on Mr. Lawal to know how the houses declared in France, USA, and UK were acquired.

“The Western world should help in tackling money laundering and other associated vices because most of these monies ended up being used to finance terrorism.

“We will also like to call on Code of Conduct Bureau and relevant agencies of government to look into this claims and make its findings public for Nigerians to truly know the characters in our governance space.

“On our part, it’s a collective fight; so, when we  see something,  let’s say something, so that collectively, we can rid Nigeria of pilferers whose ball pen has robbed the kids of the nation of its fair share of the national cake,’ he stated.