Defection: Matawalle Battling 50 Lawsuits, Says Attorney General

A total of 50 lawsuits have been filled challenging the defection of Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, to the All Progressives Congress from Peoples Democratic Party.

The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Junaidu Aminu, disclosed this on Monday in Gusau after the sitting of the investigative panel on the impeachment of the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mahdi Aliyu-Gusau.

The commissioner attributed the multiple litigations to those he termed as “enemies of the state”.

“Enemies of the state are behind the multiple numbers of court litigation against Gov. Bello Matawalle and his supporters,” he added.

According to him, 30 of the suits were lodged by one person from Maru Local Government Area.

“He instituted more than 30 court cases against the defection of Gov. Matawalle and the party executives.

“Recently, Sen. Kabiru Marafa and his team also instituted another three different cases,” Aminu said.

He pointed out that Marafa’s lawsuits were different from the main suit instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party on which platform Matawalle emerged as governor.

The commissioner, however, said that eight of the cases had to do with contracts the government inherited from the previous administration.

“The governor and the state APC executives are already in court with the PDP, the governor and his legal team are working harder to overcome the court cases,” he said.

Matawalle emerged as Zamfara governor under the PDP after the Supreme Court disqualified all candidates of the APC who contested and won the 2019 general elections in the state.

The governor, however, defected to the APC and was received into the party on June 29, 2021.