The Court of Appeal sitting in Sokoto has dismissed an appeal filed by former Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, in the long-running dispute over dozens of official vehicles allegedly taken from the state government’s fleet at the end of his tenure in 2023.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Friday, August 8, 2025, by Justice A.M. Talba, the three-man panel upheld the earlier ruling of the Federal High Court in Sokoto, which confirmed that the police acted within the law when they moved in to recover the vehicles from Matawalle’s residence.
The legal tussle dates back to June 2023, when the Zamfara State Government accused Matawalle and members of his cabinet of carting away more than 40 official vehicles after leaving office on May 29.
Following a court order, police raided the former governor’s home and seized the vehicles.
Matawalle, who rejected the allegation of wrongdoing, went to the Federal High Court in Gusau to challenge the seizure, claiming the cars were his personal property and that his right to own property had been violated.
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The case was later transferred to Sokoto, where the court ruled against him in December 2023.
Unconvinced, the former governor escalated the matter to the Court of Appeal. But the appellate court held that he had failed to provide credible proof of ownership of the vehicles, stressing that his rights had not been infringed upon.
“The police are empowered to investigate allegations of crime once a complaint is filed, and the process followed in this case was lawful,” a statement from the Zamfara State Governor’s spokesperson, Sulaiman Bala Idris, quoted the judgment as saying.
With this decision, the vehicles remain the property of the Zamfara State Government, effectively closing the chapter on Matawalle’s legal attempt to reclaim them.