A group, Advocate for Social Justice, has called on the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to probe the total cash declaration of Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State.
The Executive Director of the group, Gamji Joseph made the call while addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
He also urged the Governor to without further delay, avail the people of Zamfara with facts and figures behind his financial deposit declarations.
He said Zamfara State is one of the most affected states on issues of insecurity, terrorism and syndicated illegal mining.
Joseph recalled that on October 17, an annual report released by ONE campaign, ranked Zamfara as the most difficult state in Nigeria to access primary healthcare services.
He lamented that the people of Zamfara have been appalled by the constant social activities of their Governor, which he alleged is centered on attending weddings and parties while citizens cower in fear of abductions and deaths.
Joseph noted that several attempts by various civil organisations to engage the state government on issues of governance and his plans on insecurity have failed woefully.
The group claimed that in its quest to unearth more about the state's chief executive, it approached the code of conduct bureau (CCB) to ascertain background information about the state governor.
The group noted: “The documents show that the incumbent governor of Zamfara State should be listed on Forbes as one of the richest men in Africa, with cash deposit in one account alone, out of several others, showing a balance of $5 billion!!!
“In total, Governor Dauda Lawal declared a total cash deposit in banks of $5,013,357,125.13; N1,522,865,024.00; £841,704.77.”
“These monies are deposited in numerous personal accounts in GT Bank, First Bank & Taj Bank while his Credent Advisory Limited corporate account has a fixed income of N200 million.”
The group queried if the governor pays commensurate taxes to the federal government from what he declared, adding that those tax receipts need to be made public.
It added: “We therefore wish to use this press conference to call on His Excellency, Governor Dauda Lawal, to please, without further delay, avail the people of Zamfara State and Nigeria with facts and figures behind these financial deposit declarations so as to allay their fears that their governor is not a fraudster or sponsor of terrorism.
“It is also important to note that this plea is not open ended, and if the sources of these figures declared are not made public within one week, it is our intent to mobilise Nigerians and people of zamfara state to march to the National Assembly and ensure a state of emergency is declared in the state by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The group noted that while it would not only be challenging the authenticity of the figures he declared while exposing sources of earnings but has decided to put the CCB on notice that it has to explain to Nigerians how it verified the submissions, including the Governor's sources of income where applicable.
