Defection: Don’t dare me, Matawalle warns deputy

The gulf appears to be widening between Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, and his deputy, Mahdi Aliyu, after the governor yesterday threatened to give the deputy governor “the treatment he deserves” if he dared him.

Aliyu, son of former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Muhammed Gusau, has refused to follow Matawalle to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and even addressed a rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the platform that brought the two of them to power, to reaffirm his loyalty to the party.

This has not gone down well with the governor, who told the Hausa Service of Deutsch Welle yesterday that he was getting fed up with Aliyu’s disrespectful attitude.

“I won’t join issues with him. But if he dares me, I will give him the treatment he deserves,” Matawalle said, hours after the State House of Assembly invited the deputy governor to come and  explain why he held the rally without regard for  the current security situation in the state and ”in disrespect of advice by the security authorities in the state.”

Zamfara is facing serious security challenge with bandits kidnapping and killing people at will.

There are fears that the House of Assembly summons may be the first step by the legislative arm towards impeaching Aliyu.

The legislators have already switched camps from the PDP to the APC.

Speaking yesterday, Matawalle said: “I just read about the impeachment plan and called someone for clarification, who told me that they would not accept it from the deputy governor to be organising rallies when people are being killed.

“As governor of the state, I promised to work together with the deputy governor irrespective of our political affiliations. But I won’t tolerate a disrespectful attitude from him.”

Speaker of the House, Nasiru Magarya, had faulted Aliyu for holding the rally.

“It is wrong for the deputy governor to hold a political rally in this critical time,” he said.

Aliyu said in a recent BBC Hausa Service interview that his decision to remain in the PDP was in honour of the mandate given to the party by the Supreme Court.

“Remember how the Supreme Court brought us to power. That’s why I am thankful to God and chose to remain in the PDP,” he said.

The apex court, according to him, awarded the electoral victory in 2019 to the PDP and not just its candidates. (Courtesy, The Nation, text excluding headline)