Banditry: Political opponents linking me with notorious kingpin, Bello Turji – Defence Minister

The Minister of State for Defence, Muhammad Bello Matawalle has reacted to allegation against him by the notorious bandits’ leader, Bello Turji through a video he released on Saturday, saying the Minister who was the immediate past governor of Zamfara State has been backing terrorism in the North West zone.

The Minister said, the allegation was the handiwork of his political opponents, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while he distanced himself from the allegation and warned the party from further linking him with bandits.

Matawalle’s denial was contained in a statement from his office on Sunday, insisting that his political opponents were hell-bent on tarnishing his image by skewing the story of insecurity in Zamfara and tied around him.

Matawalle’s response was at the backdrop of report by CAPITAL POST on Saturday after obtaining a video in which the wanted bandit kingpin, speaking in Hausa accused Muhammad Bello Matawalle Maradun of backing insurgency in Zamfara and other parts of the North West.

The statement read: “Bello Turji’s audio was unprofessionally synchronised with his video to accuse the former governor of injustice in the conduct of the reconciliation by the then Zamfara State government.
“However, the video/audio editor unprofessionally disqualified his work so much that one can vividly notice the failure of the audio and video clips to simultaneously synchronise,” the statement noted.

According to Matawalle, what his political enemies in Zamfara State failed to achieve by opposing hiis nomination President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was been replayed, but would fail again, recalling that, “he got the required security clearance from relevant security agencies before the confirmation of his ministerial appointment.”