A lawsuit brought by Bello Matawalle, the former governor of Zamfara State, about the ownership of cars he seized when he left office in May 2023, was dismissed by a Federal High Court in Sokoto.
As directed by the court, the police went to Matawalle’s residences in June to seize the cars.
The Federal High Court denied Matawalle’s claims regarding the ownership of the vehicles, according to a statement released on Monday by Sulaiman Bala Idris, the spokesperson for Dauda Lawal, the current governor of the state in Northern Nigeria.
The statement claimed that all official state government vehicles had been taken away by the present minister of state for defense, the immediate former governor of Zamfara, and members of his cabinet, leaving the administration of Governor Lawal without a vehicle.
The former governor and his deputy were given five working days in June by the Zamfara State administration to return all official cars that had been seized, according to the statement. After all attempts to get the aforementioned vehicles returned were unsuccessful, the authorities of Zamfara State turned to getting a court order to get them back.
The cops retrieved more than 50 automobiles in all while pursuing that directive. Bello Matawalle hurried to the Federal High Court in Gusau as soon as the cars were found.”
Dauda Lawal, the Zamfara State governor
According to the statement, Matawalle filed a second lawsuit in the capital of Zamfara State, “seeking to enforce his fundamental right to own property, including the vehicles in question,” after the Gusau court ordered the cars to be returned to him.
According to information obtained by The Guardian, this was the moment when the administration of Governor Lawal, Matawalle’s replacement, asked for the case to be moved to a different Federal High Court division. The Sokoto Judicial Division of the Federal High Court had jurisdiction over this case; on Friday, it rejected it after rejecting Matawalle’s ownership claim.
Zamfara State and Sokoto State are adjacent states with shared borders. Zamfara was a part of Sokoto State until 1996.
The statement went on, “As a result, the vehicles are still considered the property of the Zamfara State government.” “Our government is dedicated to reclaiming everything that is rightfully the people’s through a comprehensive rescue effort that will not spare any detail.”
“The ruling by the Federal High Court will motivate us to guarantee that justice is served and all of the financial banditry’s perpetrators in Zamfara are held accountable,” the statement continued.
