![Governor Lawal Dare and questionable assets, need immediate investigation, HOTPEN](https://hotpen.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_20230701_112546.jpg)
By Yusuf Idris, Zamfara state APC publicity secretary.
Nigerians have now become bolder before the laws of the land that leaders can now look directly into our faces and daringly tell us off, knowing fully well that nothing can be done against them since they are above the law.
This is why assets declaration by political and public office holders through the constitutional channel of the law has become mere ceremony or an avenue to show off that certain person or persons have so much in cash or kind with no further investigation.
The late May to early June speculative assets declaration by the governor of Zamfara state, Dauda Lawal Dare of N9 trillion stared so much outburst that the governor had to deny it urging citizens to checkout what he declared on his assets declaration form, saying if he had so much money running into trillions, he would have personally made his state of Zamfara better.
We have however accepted and followed the governor’s call to check his submissions at the Code of Conduct Bureau and discovered that the former banker who was never engaged in any form of business nor inherited any family wealth has over 5 billion USD, about a million pounds and over N1 billion spread across many accounts as broken down below.
As a leader, the governor is supposed to come out and give details on the source of his income to Nigerians and Zamfara people in particular.
The Code of Conduct Bureau should not and must not just accept the governor’s submission but go through his financial transactions in all the financial institutions within and outside the country with a view to verifying the claims and clear themselves from being accused as accomplices. Moreover, the governor has had no link from available records with petrochemical industry, mining, textile, oil and gas, agriculture or any other known business to generate such money.
Needless to say that these are the kinds of funds linked to suspected bandits and terrorism activities which have devastated Zamfara most especially.
The same person was fingered sometimes between 2020 and 2021 in the celebrated former Minister of Petroleum Resources case tagged ‘Diesiani gate,’ that the nation’s anti graft commission had to block his accounts and charge him to court.
When former and sacked Central Bank of Nigeria CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele was sacked recently by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and arrested, he also mentioned Mr. Dauda Lawal Dare when he was being questioned.
The CBN former governor was said to have revealed how crafty and specialized Mr. Dare is in manipulating foreign exchange which desk he headed at the First Bank in his career at the bank.
This is why we now find it pertinent to call on the presidency to set up a Special investigation while the anti graft agencies are doing their own to uncover how the Zamfara governor got this mind blowing money he personally stated on his assets declaration form which is only mentioning his cash minus other assets (which should be investigated too) so that Zamfara people will know who they are entrusting the state to.
The bank cash breakdown include local currency in seven financial institutions like: GT Bank, Account number 0221555924 at Kaduna Murtala Muhammad Square with N214, 889, 997,
GT Bank Account number 0021114419 Murtala Muhammad Square with N25, 000, 557, GT Bank Account number 0021114426 Murtala Muhammad Square, Kaduna with N41, 713, 495, First bank Account number 3088548215 CBD Abuja with N17, 378, 815, Taj bank Account number 0001632438 CBD Abuja with N402, 626, First bank Account number 2004435828 CBD Abuja with N1, 023, 479, 533 and Credit Advisory Limited fixed income with N200, 000, 000 giving a total of N1, 522, 865, 024.
Under the US Dollar account there is First bank Account number 1000444115 CBD Abuja with USD29, 120.35, First bank Account number 1000806508 CBD Abuja with USD100.00, First bank fixed deposit CBD Abuja with USD5,000,000,000, Taj bank Account number 0002463838 CBD Abuja with USD2, 050, 000, First bank account number 2006263043 CBD Abuja with USD168, 458.52, GT Bank Account number 0252232038 Murtala Muhammad Square Kaduna with USD10, 688, 766.17, GT Bank Account number 0021114921 Kaduna with USD70, 844.56, GT Bank Account number 0631790441 Kaduna with USD64, 755.75, First Bank Account number 8914150037 Private Banking Wuse ll Abuja with USD 240, 000, First Bank Account number 2018141634 CBD Abuja with USD 45, 098.80 with a total of USD5, 013, 357, 125.15.
Finally, there are pounds sterling accounts domiciled at GT Bank Account number 0770966026 Murtala Muhammad Way, Abuja with 819, 894.19 pounds, GT Bank Account number 0051673953 Kaduna with 203.87 pounds and First Bank Account number 2011128599 Muhammadu Buhari Way, CBD Abuja with 21, 606.71 pounds bringing a total of 841, 704.77 pounds.
We strongly believe that no government will allow even its president to amass such wealth in cash without questions, thus, we beg the present government under an astute leader like Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find out how these monies were acquired based on the arguments we have presented above.