From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
An activist group, Advocate for Social Justice, has issued a one-week ultimatum to ground National Assembly if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu fails to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara state over sundry allegations against the governor, Dauda Lawal.
The group hinged their action on the failure of authorities and international agencies to conduct proper probe on the governor’s sources of wealth to ascertain if he is not a sponsor of terrorism and illegal mining in Zamfara and northern Nigeria.
Executive Director of the group, Gamji Guana Joseph, issued the ultimatum at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, faulting the background of the assets the governor declared on assumption of office.
“We wish to use this press conference to call on 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 1 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 Tinubu to enable the authorities and international agencies conduct proper probe on the governor’s sources of wealth to be sure he is not a sponsor of terrorism and illegal mining Zamfara and northern Nigeria.
“We will not only be challenging the authenticity of the figures he declared while exposing sources of earnings, but also we want to put the CCB, an agency of the federal government, on notice that they have to explain to Nigerians how they verified the submissions including the sources of income where applicable.
“The governor might have immunity from prosecution, but he cannot be immune from revolt from his people and Nigerians! We believe he will do the right thing, as the clock has started ticking,” the group noted.
Speaking further, the group said: “We have been involved in several citizen based pro-advocacy programmes and campaigns cutting across various strata of the executive, legislative and judicial structure in Nigeria of which most have entailed investigative activities emanating from petitions and submissions made by Nigerians from all works of life.
“One of such concerns is to help unravel the intents and purposes concerning the background of financial assets declared by the newly sworn-in executive governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal. The first question we would like to address, is why Zamfara state? Zamfara State is one of the most affected states (if not the most affected) on issues of insecurity, terrorism and syndicated illegal mining,” the group said.