Zamfara state Governor, Bello Matawalle has come out to allege that the chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, asked him to give him $2million.
On Wednesday, Matawalle asked Bawa to ensure that the EFCC’s probe didn’t only target outgoing governors, but also presidency officials.
Reacting to Matawalle’s comments, the EFCC insisted that it was probing the governor for allegedly diverting N70billion meant for contracts in the state.
But speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa on Friday, Matawalle claimed he is being investigated because he “didn’t offer the EFCC chairperson the money he requested from him’.
Read Also: ₦70bn Fraud: Why We Are Yet To Arrest Matawalle – EFCC
He said: ‘I am not resisting being probed. I’m still the governor and have immunity, no one has invited me.
‘The EFCC said they were investigating me? It was when I spoke that they made allegations against me.
‘He (Bawa) knows what he begged me to give him which I didn’t.
‘The allegations against me are lies. He begged me to give him two million dollars. There is a house where I met him and he knows it, where he told me that he wants to see me.’
Africa Today News, New York recalls that the EFCC has earlier stated that Governor Matawalle’s immunity from criminal prosecution – enjoyed by governors and their deputies while in office – is the sole reason the Commission is yet to move to secure his arrest.
This was made public in a statement issued by the EFCC on Thursday which was sent to Africa Today News, New York.
The anti-graft agency went further to reveal that at the moment, they were still investigating the Zamfara governor over ‘allegation of monumental corruption, award of phantom contracts and diversion of over ₦70 billion’.