Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has explained why Bello Matawalle, the Minister of State for Defence, remained unaffected by the recent cabinet reshuffle.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, Onanuga addressed the allegations made by Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, who had accused Matawalle of secretly collaborating with bandits in the northwest.
Onanuga dismissed these claims, asserting that they were false. He further revealed that an investigation conducted by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) found no merit to the accusations, concluding that they were politically driven.
He said, “As far as I know, most of those things are just mere allegations. In one of them, I got something like that and sent it to the NSA and asked: ‘Have you heard about this?’
“The NSA said: ‘No. We have probed a lot of those things; they are not true’. People are just bringing out all kinds of fake things and allegations. That is why the man (Matawalle) is still in the cabinet.
“The president, I’m sure, has heard many stories about him. For him to be there shows that, like I have said, some of those things have been probed; they have been found not to be true.
“The NSA office has already investigated some of those allegations. They are mere fabrications.”