Recent developments indicate that the vehicles confiscated from Bello Matawalle, the ex-governor of Zamfara State, have been handed back to the court premises as per the decision of the Federal High Court in Gusau. Reliable sources confirm that on Sunday, 29 of the seized cars were discovered at the court.
To recap the events, security authorities seized several of Matawalle’s vehicles on June 9, 2023. Matawalle himself criticized the police for forcefully entering his residence and confiscating the vehicles, along with other valuable items. However, he pledged not to reclaim his vehicles through force but rather in accordance with due process. Now, the Zamfara Police Command has announced that all the confiscated vehicles have been returned to the court, complying with the Federal High Court’s order in Gusau.
Yazid Abubakar, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, confirmed this compliance with the court order during a telephone conversation on Saturday. He affirmed that all the vehicles had been returned to the premises of the Federal High Court in Gusau, leaving no vehicles in custody.
On June 15, Justice Aliyu Bappa of the Federal High Court in Gusau issued an order instructing the involved security agencies to return the vehicles within 48 hours. The court also issued an interim injunction, prohibiting the mentioned respondents in Matawalle’s lawsuit, including the Inspector-General of Police, the Nigeria Police Force, the Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), from taking any further action concerning the matter.
The current questions arises: What will the court’s subsequent actions be regarding Matawalle’s seized vehicles? Will the vehicles be returned to him? Or will the court initiate an investigation into how he acquired such a substantial number of vehicles while serving as the state’s governor? All these questions will be answered in due course, following the court’s next steps. Nevertheless, some Nigerians are calling for a probe into the matter in order to establish and verify his innocence, demonstrating that state resources were not used in purchasing the cars.
