Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has claimed that his reluctance to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s Naira redesign policy cost him re-election, according to Daily Trust.
Matawalle was one of three governors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) who filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the policy.
Matawalle, along with Governors Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna, petitioned the Supreme Court to deem the naira policy illegal.
Later, other governors, including Kano’s Abdullahi Ganduje, joined the action.
Matawalle, who was defeated in the March 18 governorship race, claimed in an interview with DW Hausa that the Federal Government deliberately worked against him and other APC governors who opposed the policy.
Matawalle claimed that troops stationed in the state barred voters from voting for him.
According to him, APC supporters were beaten and denied the right to vote for the governing party.
“I told my people prior to the election not to participate in rigging the polls for me to win because I prefer the people of the state to vote for me to win without rigging,” he said.
“The number of soldiers we saw in Zamfara during the election was terrifying because we had never seen that many soldiers in the state.” I didn’t bother myself when I saw them, and I knew something was up because I had gotten confidential reports that there are some people who want to exact revenge on me and some governors for some things they believe we did wrong.
“They’ve been saying that when we filed a case in court over the naira redesign policy, I, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, and Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, would see the outcome of what we did.” In reality, we were attempting to address the issue of insecurity in Zamfara by getting soldiers to be deployed but we couldn’t. But three days to the election, over 300 cars carrying soldiers came into Zamfara.
“If the troops had been sent when we were dealing with insecurity, it would have ended in Zamfara by now.” No polling station in Zamfara had fewer than 50 soldiers assigned to it, and the soldiers beat up and stopped people from voting for the APC. All of this occurred, and we have film evidence.
“And when something happens and we call the soldiers, they never show up.” As a result, this was all a planned event. It’s not the first time I’ve lost a race. In 2015, I ran for Senate but was defeated. I competed again after losing the first time and won. “I’m a politician, and the fight goes on.”
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