The Governor of Zamfara State,Bello Matawalle has asked the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) to call the governors of the South South States to order following their unfounded vituperation on Zamfara gold otherwise he will leave the party.
The governor who spoke to current matters on Friday ,said as members of the same party, the South South governors should have been the ones to have first hand understanding of the situation if they had contacted him instead of sponsoring and buying a cheap controversy of non existing ownership or control of gold by the government of Zamfara State.
Matawalle restated that every natural mineral deposits belong to the federal government and that it was his administration that invited the federal government to harness the abundant resources in the state for purposes of diversifying the nation’s economy.
He explained that before he took over office as governor, the resources then were exclusively preserved for the previous administration and certain persons which was why there was unmitigated crime and criminality for which a lot of lives were lost.
The governor described the attitude of the governors’ of the South South region as divisive and counterproductive and blamed the governors for the recent blowing up of oil facilities in the region on their provocative misguided utterances.
He said most of the quaries are owned by Southerners particularly those from the South East.
“We have 32 quaries and most of them are owned by people from the Eastern part of the country.They have never paid a Kobo to the state government let alone to the federal government.”
“We have somebody from the South East who has multibillion naira industry in Zamfara State,We have somebody also fron Anambra who is taking copper from Zamfara State, mining, and has over 200 hectares of Land and has developed all the land with about 2000 employees.”
“Tell me Is there any Hausaman that can go to the South East and get even a thousand Square metres? But we are liberal ,otherwise I could have asked them to leave the state.We never claimed the whole of Zamfara is for Zamfara,We consider people from other ethnic groups as brothers. But what we see with our brothers from other states is the reverse, Look at what the South South governors are doing, mentioning my name that since I harness the gold reserves, they too will control their crude oil and I wonder where this is coming from.”
I thought because we are all members of the same party that we are brothers,but with what those South South governors are doing, my perception about brotherhood has changed and I don’t have to look too far to know who the enemy is.
Matawalle said he never claimed ownership of the Zamfara gold so he doesn’t understand the noise about ownership.He challenged the governors on ownership of modular refineries in their states and asked them to be preoccupied with such issues than blaming him for what he knew nothing about.
“They have modular refineries, legalized , that could boost their states’ revenues so why don’t they take advantage of that and help their people with that instead of chasing shadows.?”
Matawalle advised the governors of the oil- rich South South states to focus their attention to helping their people with the accruing resources at their disposal and stop fanning the embers of disunity in the country.
The governor saluted the defection of Governor Dave Umahi to the All Progressives Congress ( APC), noting that he did the right thing as it was the same APC Federal Government that came to defend him(Matawalle) with records of the gold mining when members of his own party vilified him.
He added that if the governors in the South South region are not made to retrace their steps, and the spirit of unity is not rekindled, the PDP might be a shadow of itself as he along with other governors would leave the party.
