Dare me and get treatment you deserve, Matawalle warns deputy

Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara state, says he will not tolerate any disrespect or insubordination from Mahdi Aliyu, his deputy.

Both men fell out after Matawalle defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in June.

While Zamfara lawmakers at both the state and federal level left with Matawalle, Aliyu remained in the PDP.

The deputy governor later held a political rally to reaffirm his loyalty to the PDP.

There were reports about plans to impeach Aliyu after the state house of assembly summoned him for holding a rally despite the security situation in the state.

Commenting on the turn of events when he spoke with DW Hausa Service on Saturday, Matawalle said he remains the chief security officer of the state and should have been informed of the rally by his deputy.

He warned Aliyu not to dare him else “I will give him the treatment he deserves”.

Matawalle said he has no problems working with Aliyu despite being in different parties but that his deputy has stopped associating with him since his defection.

“I just read about the impeachment plan and called someone for clarification who told me that they would not accept it from the deputy governor to be organising rallies when people are being killed,” Matawalle said.

“As governor of the state, I promised to work together with the deputy governor irrespective of our political affiliations. But I won’t tolerate a disrespectful attitude from him.

“I won’t join issue with him but if he dares me, I will give him the treatment he deserves,” the governor said.

“We all agreed to halt any political rally welcoming politicians into the state since we lost some of our supporters while welcoming us.

“The deputy governor should have notified me of whatever he planned to do. Being of different political parties does not mean I am no longer his boss. Since the defection, he has stopped associating with me.

“I am the chief security officer of the state. I won’t tolerate any person trying to breach the security of the state.”

The PDP has asked a federal high court in Abuja to sack Matawalle over his defection.