Katsina Visit: Alake Gets Governor Lawal’s $5m to broker meeting with President Tinubu, Issue Mining Licenses
New information suggests that Zamfara Governor Dauda Lawal gave Mining Minister Dele Alake $5 million. This payment was allegedly for arranging a meeting between the governor and President Bola Tinubu during the president’s visit to Katsina.
The President is on a two-day visit to Katsina, during which he will assess the security situation in the state, commission key projects, and attend an event organized by the Katsina state governor, Dikko Umar Radda.
Alake allegedly received the funds from Governor Lawal to facilitate a meeting with President Tinubu for the Zamafara State Governor to discuss his defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC), which recently received several high-profile defectors from other political parties.
A credible source in the Government House, Gusau, revealed that “the $5 million payout also covers 15 mining licences that the Minister negotiated with His Excellency (Lawal) during his last visit to the northwest geo-political zone.”
The source said both men have remained closely in touch and that Alake has repeatedly acted to convince Governor Lawal that he can be trusted. He held a press conference in March this year to defend the lifting of the ban on mining in Zamfara state, claiming that this was because the security situation in the bandits-plagued state had improved.
“We have developed a standard operating procedure for mining in Zamfara, given the unique challenges the state faced previously. This SOP serves as a code for anyone looking to explore or operate in the region,” Alake had stated during the press briefing, which the source now said was held as proof that the Minister will fulfil the deal to hand the 15 mining licences to Governor Lawal.
Another source in the Presidency, who does not want to be named because he is not a designated spokesperson, disclosed that Alake has been frantically pressuring President Tinubu’s close aides to schedule Governor Lawal for a private meeting with the President in Katsina State.
“He has been pressuring them that there is a need to sustain ‘Hurricane Tinubu’ and that he has the Zamfara State Governor on board to cross over to the APC, but that it was important for Governor Dauda (Lawal) to use the Katsina visit as an opportunity to meet the President and finalise plans for his crossing.
“What I don’t know is whether the Minister, Mr. Alake, can pull the meeting off, especially since it became strategically imperative that the gale of defections is better managed after the outcry from the civil society following the defections in Delta state,” he saidsaid.
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