By Uche Onyeali
Civil Society Organisation, CSO, Situation Room on Monitoring the War Against Banditry, has urged President Bola Tinubu to stop federal allocations to Zamfara State and impose emergency rule over Governor Dauda Lawal’s alleged role in banditry.
The group claimed that Governor Lawal’s handling of security votes had effectively subsidised criminal elements operating from the shadows, synonymous to feeding bandits from the Government House.
The group pointed to a recent video where Lawal openly disclosed knowledge of bandit kingpins’ hideouts, but never took a decisive action to curb their activities.
Addressing journalists yesterday, Convener of the Situation Room, Henry Abba described the governor’s statement as a “damning admission of guilt” in the criminal activities that has bedeviled Zamfara State.
“It is shocking, heartbreaking – a blatant betrayal of trust and a catastrophic leadership failure,” Abba noted.
He noted that Lawal’s reluctance to relay the critical intelligence to federal security outfits has transformed the state into a “notorious graveyard” where abductions, massacres and mass displacements have become the grim routine for innocent residents.
Abba painted a harrowing picture of Zamfara’s plight: villages reduced to rubble, families torn apart by nightly raids and farmlands abandoned under the shadow of fear.
According to him, considering the state’s substantial security budget – reportedly N600 million disbursed monthly – Lawal’s professed helplessness is “utterly irresponsible.”
Abba slammed the governor’s conduct as a direct affront to frontline troops risking their lives and a desecration of the sacrifices made by fallen heroes in the fight against insurgency.
Dismissing attempts by his supporters to spin the video as a desperate appeal for federal aid, Abba insisted, “This is not a plea; it is a confession. He knows the exact dens of these murderers yet opts for inaction, while his citizens perish.”
He challenged Lawal to substantiate any claim of prior intelligence-sharing with agencies like the military or police, questioning why such vital information has seemingly evaporated into bureaucratic voids.
The Situation Room accused the governor of enabling a system where local government allocations, intended for rural development, are siphoned into personal coffers.
“Chairmen are holed up in Gusau, far from their domains, turning grassroots funds into illicit windfalls,” Abba revealed, fueling suspicions of widespread graft amid the security vacuum.
He suggested that Lawal’s public outburst was a calculated ploy to vilify President Bola Tinubu’s administration and deflect scrutiny from his own governance lapses.
“It is politics pushed to the extreme – a theatrical bid to obscure the anarchy in Zamfara’s lawless frontiers,” Abba opined, branding the governor’s approach as evidence of a morally adrift leadership devoid of purpose.
The group issued a multi-pronged call to action for President Tinubu, with a demand for the immediate suspension of Zamfara’s federal allocation until a thorough audit clears the air on security vote expenditure.
It also advocated a collaborative investigation involving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Department of State Services, DSS, and the Office of the National Security Adviser to unearth diversion of public resources to criminals.
The group also demanded a National Assembly-led inquiry to grill Lawal on his stewardship, emphasizing transparency in how security intelligence is managed.
