Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal has said the Federal Government has refused to grant financial support to the state despite its security challenges.
The governor, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the federal government had never granted financial support to the state although he knew other states belonging to the All Progressive Congress (APC) have been supported.
In an interview with DW Hausas monitored by 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE on Tuesday, Mr Lawal said, “ever since I became governor, aside the usual federal allocation, the Federal Government has never helped me with a penny as they have done for other states. I know states that were given more than N500 billion financial support from the Federal Government. We’ve not been lucky to get that support.”
When asked what he believed is the reason for the Federal Government’s decision not to support the state, he said, “I personally believe it’s because I’m not an APC governor, I’m a PDP member. I’m a member of the opposition, so they should not support people like us. Even with that, we’ve been delivering developmental projects for our people.”
Governor Lawal also said he has never borrowed money to execute capital projects in his three years as a governor.
On decamping to the APC as other governors have done leaving him as the lone opposition governor in the North-West, he said he would not decamp to the APC.
“As a northern and Muslim, I believe that everything is in God’s hands. I’ve never lost sleep over their decamping.
“Secondly, I’ll never betray my party because it has problems. I’ll be ungrateful to switch parties. I’ll continue to fight for the right things to be done. I’ll wait to see what happens in the end. When I’m convinced that PDP is dead, I’ll look for another party but that’s only when there’s no option,” he said in the interview conducted in Hausa language.
