On 16 May 2023, at the Federal High Court in Gusau, Bello Mohammed Matawalle swore his end of tenure asset declaration on Form CCB 1, and the Zamfara State office of the Code of Conduct Bureau received it on 24 May 2023, five days before he handed over power as governor of Zamfara State on 29 May 2023. A copy of the form was obtained by SecretsReporters, and its contents have never been published. Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution obliges every public officer to submit a written declaration of all his properties, assets and liabilities, and those of his spouse and his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years, on taking office, every four years after that, and at the end of his term. Matawalle is now the Minister of State for Defence, an office he has held since 21 August 2023.
On the figures entered on the form, the estate he swore to at the end of his four years as governor comes to N12,659,000,000, with a further $24,083.51 standing in dollar balances.
The bank section enters twelve accounts in Nigerian banks, holding cash of about N369,000,000 and the $24,083.51 between them, and two of the twelve accounts he marked dormant. Against foreign bank accounts the form enters none. Paragraph 3 of the Code of Conduct in the same Schedule bars a public officer from maintaining or operating a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.
Five buildings are valued together at N5,150,000,000. The largest is a 39 bedroom upstairs on GRA Road, Gusau, which he entered as built from his salary and allowances in 2012 and valued at N2,500,000,000. A 10 bedroom guest house with boys quarters in Asokoro Extension, acquired in 2018 through a bank loan, is valued at N900,000,000. A 14 room flat and a 10 bedroom upstairs in Maradun, acquired in 2003, are valued at N800,000,000. A 7 bedroom flat in Wuse II, Abuja, acquired in 2010, is valued at N550,000,000, and a 6 bedroom duplex with boys quarters in Maitama, Abuja, acquired in January 2019, is valued at N400,000,000. Paragraph 11(3) of the Schedule provides that any property acquired after a declaration which cannot be fairly attributed to income, a gift or a loan approved by the Code shall be deemed to have been acquired in breach of the Code unless the contrary is proved.
The business pages of the form carry the Belsha Group, at 2 Kinshasa Road, Ungwan Rimi, Kaduna, which he entered as acquired in June 2012 through salary, allowances and income, valued at N3,700,000,000 and returning an annual income of N200,000,000. Eight units of three bedroom flats with boys quarters in Garki, Abuja, entered as run as a hotel apartment, are valued at N280,000,000 with an annual income of N216,000,000. A hotel in Gudu, Abuja, is valued at N120,000,000, and a 10 hectare orchard in Bwari, Abuja, is valued at N250,000,000.
Those entries stand on the declaration of a man who held the businesses through his four years as a state governor, and the Code of Conduct speaks to them directly. Paragraph 2(b) of Part I of the Fifth Schedule provides that a public officer shall not engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade, farming being the only exception the Code allows, and section 6(b) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act carries the same prohibition. The penalties on conviction, in paragraph 18(2) of the Schedule and section 23(2) of the Act, are vacation of office, disqualification from holding any public office for a period of up to ten years, and seizure and forfeiture of any property acquired in abuse or corruption of office.
The vehicle schedule is valued at about N1,430,000,000 in all. Five Lexus LX 570s are entered at N310,000,000, a 2015 Cadillac stretch limousine at N190,000,000, three Range Rovers at N144,000,000 and two Range Rover Autobiographies at N82,000,000. Behind them the form lists eight Toyota Hilux vans, two Toyota Land Cruisers, a G-Wagon, a Mercedes Benz CLS 400, two Mercedes Benz GLK 350s, two BMWs, an Escalade limousine, a Ford F150, a 2013 Lexus, a Viva and a 2007 Honda CRV.
Household furniture and items are entered at about N1,255,000,000.
The section of the form that demands the properties of his spouses names three wives. Hajiya Fatima Bello Matawalle, Hajiya Balkisu Bello Matawalle and Hajiya Sadiya Bello Matawalle are each entered with a house valued at N35,000,000 in the Metropolitan Estate, Kasarawa, Abuja, and all three houses are entered as acquired on the same day, 12 May 2016.
Against government securities the form enters none, and against shares and debentures it enters none, on the same form whose business pages carry a Kaduna business group valued at N3,700,000,000.
He swore, by virtue of the Oaths Act 1990, that the facts given in the form are correct and that he conscientiously believes them to be true, and paragraph 11(2) of the Schedule provides that any statement in a declaration which is found to be false shall be deemed a breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers. The form stands on the Bureau’s file in Zamfara under declarant identification ZMSE-002066.
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