By Baron Ike
President Muhammadu Buhari has at last sent the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, David Lawal Babachir on suspension in what many see as a prelude to disengaging him from his government over allegation of corruption.
Also suspended and almost certain to be sacked was the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke whose office was recently fingered in the controversial recovery of huge sums of money in local and foreign currency at the Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Both Babachir and Oke were sent on suspension by the President on Wednesday, April 19 who also set up a three man committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to look into the allegations involving the duo.
Buhari’s media adviser, Femi Adesina said in a statement on Wednesday that the President had ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law and due process made against Babachir in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE).
Consequently, the SGF was ordered to vacate office pending the completion of the investigation that will last for two weeks.
Members of the committee are Osinbajo (chairman), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the National Security Adviser (NSA).
The same committee is to look into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds seized by EFCC at Osborne Towers running into billions of Naira, “how and by whose authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether of not there has been breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.”
The most senior Permanent Secretary in the office of the SGF, and the most senior officer in the NIA, are to act, respectively during the period of the investigation, according to Adesina.
The senate last year demanded for the immediate resignation Babachir, over allegations of corruption in the disbursement of the humanitarian funds for the troubled North Eastern part of the country.
The senators had also advised Buhari to sack him if he fails to resign willingly.
The red chambers took the decision on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 following the submission of the Senate Committee Adhoc report on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the Northeast that highlighted shady deals allegedly linked to Babachir’s companies. The committee is headed by Senator Shehu Sani.
Besides, the committee was empowered by the senate to probe the more than N127billion donated by humanitarian agencies in aide of the Northeast through the various rehabilitation committees set up by the Federal Government for that purpose.
It would be recalled that earlier, the committee had investigated the Presidential Initiative on the Northeast (PINE), and found that the whole procurement exercise was frost with deals that contravened the federal government’s financial rules And regulations number 2948.
It emerged that a whooping N2.5 billion was allegedly misappropriated by the PINE set up by President Buhari to oversee the reconstruction of the area destroyed by the Islamic fundamentalists, Boko Haram.
The alleged fraud was said to have been disclosed at a public hearing organised by the committee in the National Assembly.
The Senate Ad hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 reportedly uncovered the alleged fraud of N2.5billion believed to have been perpetrated by the PINE .
The said discovery came at a time women in most of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps go through huge discomfort while searching for sanitary pads.
It was learnt that the alleged fraud had to do with execution of non-existing contracts, overinflated contracts and outright misappropriation of funds.
During the sitting, PINE allegedly couldn’t account for N2.5 billion it received for execution of intervention projects in the region.
While Secretary of PINE, Umar Musa Gulani claimed the agency spent N203million to clear taipa grass in Yobe State, stakeholders from the state led by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Lamin, disputed the claim, saying “no taipa grass was cleared in the state by any federal government agency.”
The commissioner also countered Gulani’s claim on the clearing of invasive plants species around river banks in the state with N253million by PINE as well as N422.5million he claimed was spent on provision of temporary shelter (tents) to small families in the state.
The claim to have spent several millions of naira for the renovation of about 18 schools completely wiped out by the Boko Haram insurgents in Yobe State alone was also disputed by Lamin and other stakeholders.
The commissioner said only three schools have been renovated in the state by agencies outside the state, to which the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) have been directed by the Governor to identify.
Based on the revelations, the committee descended on PINE, directing Gulani to forward to it within one week all documents including photographs of claimed executed contracts, wondering why a paltry sum of N2million was spent by the agency to feed the IDPs and donating N50million to a non-governmental organisation as clearly stated in their statement of account.
Senator Theodore Orji, a member of the committee had said: “ The affected states said they were not aware of all the contracts executed by PINE; you people just decided to make money and that is why you decided to donate N50million for a conference organised by an NGO .”
Also, Senator Ben Bruce, said when the committee visited some IDP camps, many women cried out for provision of sanitary pads which he said could have been well taken care of if the N2.5billion given to PINE out of the budgeted N5billion, was well utilised.
There has been huge outcry from the IDP camps based on poor feeding, habitation and other need sfor which monies are daily being donated.
Many Nigerians have also asked the Federal Government to probe the managers of the funds as they may have misappropriated the resources thereby defeating the objective of the initiative.