The spokesman of President Bola Tinubu, Chief Bayo Onanuga, has explained why his principal did not sack the Minister of State for Defence, Mr Bello Matawalle, amidst allegations of involvement in sponsoring bandits and insecurity.
Bayo Onanuga gave the explanation when he appeared on Arise Television on Wednesday.
During the interview, when asked about Matawalle’s continued presence in the cabinet following the recent reshuffle, which saw other ministers offloaded, Onanuga acknowledged the circulation of various rumors regarding Matawalle’s alleged ties to insecurity in Zamfara State, noting that these allegations have even reached the President.
He revealed that the National Security Adviser’s office conducted an investigation into these claims and deemed them to be unfounded, noting that Matawalle is fully capable of carrying out his responsibilities.
“As far as I know, most of those things are just mere allegations. I think in one of them, I got something like that I sent to the NSA, I said have you heard about this? and he said no, we have proved a lot to those things that they are not correct, they are not true. People are just bringing out all kinds of fake things and allegations about someone.
“And that is why the man is there. Even the President has heard so many stories about him. For him to be there, shows like I said, some of those things have been probed, and they are found not to be true,” Onanuga explained.