Matawalle, who is now the Minister of State for Defence, is facing accusations related to his time as governor of Zamfara.
Lawal made this statement during an interview on TVC on Wednesday.
He urged Matawalle to show integrity by stepping aside and addressing the accusations.
The governor said that Matawalle must prove his innocence and that continuing in office without addressing these serious claims would harm his reputation
Lawal also accused Matawalle of looting the state's treasury and leaving the government in a bad financial situation.
He revealed that when he took office, more than N250 billion was unaccounted for.
Lawal said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had earlier reported that N70 billion was stolen under Matawalle’s administration.
However, he discovered that the missing funds were far greater.
According to Lawal, the state was in a very bad financial condition when he took over.
“EFCC made a pronouncement sometime around May 21, 2023, or there about that it was alleging that N70 billion was stolen. That means before I took over. By the time I took over, I realized that that N70 billion they mentioned was a child’s play."
"So far based on available records, we realized over N250 billion was not accounted for. It is very funny. Let me explain to you the state I inherited. I inherited a very dysfunctional state. When I took over there was no N4 million in Zamfara State Government account – just empty.“
"There was a backlog of salaries for four months. For three years. none of Zamfara’s indigenes wrote either WAEC or NECO. I had to settle N1.3 billion for NECO and N1.6 billion for WAEC. Some of the students got their certificates after we settled WAEC and NECO,” the governor said.
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