Buhari suspends SGF Lawal, NIA DG, Oke

• Fayose says suspension afterthought, cover-up plot
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law and due process made against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal, in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE).
The President has also directed the suspension of the SGF from office pending the outcome of the investigations.
Also, the President has ordered a full scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim.
The investigation is also to enquire into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.
The President has also directed the suspension of the Director General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.
A three-man Committee comprising the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the National Security Adviser, headed by the Vice President, is to conduct both investigations.
The Committee is to submit its report to the President within 14 days.
The most senior Permanent Secretary in the SGF’s office, and the most senior officer in the NIA, are to act, respectively, during the period of investigation.
Meanwhile, Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal, and the Director-General of National Intelligence ‎Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, as diversionary.
He also described the setting up of a three-man Committee to investigate the discovery of over N13 billion cash by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos as an afterthought and a prelude to the official cover-up of the original owners of the money.
The governor, who said the Buhari-led government was becoming an embarrassment to Nigerians with its macabre dance of shame, asked:‎ “Would the President have set up a probe panel if these scams were linked to anyone in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or those members of his party that are not in his good books?
“Most importantly, what business does Presidential Committee have with investigation of crime? Are they telling Nigerians that they have lost confidence in all the intelligence and investigative agencies of the government, including the EFCC and DSS?”
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said it was becoming obvious that President Buhari had lost control of his government, adding that ‎“The Buhari-led Federal Government is operating like many governments within one government. There appears to be many Presidencies within the Presidency and this is the reason for the confusion everywhere.”
The governor declared that “the cat of President Buhari’s government hypocrisy in its fight against corruption has already been let of the nag”, adding that, “Nigerians can no longer be deceived by a government that protects its own people whenever they are accused of corruption while setting the DSS and EFCC to invade houses of members of opposition parties, especially those perceived as having presidential ambition in 2019 in the night to arrest and detain them indefinitely even when corruption allegations against them have not been proved.”
He said it was the inability of the President to take actions beyond his political party and ethnic sentiments that plunged his government ‎into the present controversies.
“Did the President not write a letter dated January 17, 2017, to the Senate, exonerating the SGF? So what has changed in the case of the SGF? Was his announced suspension just for balancing? He queried.
“Why waiting for this messy OsborneGate to act on the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) grass-cutting scam? Could it have been a case of one Presidency (Buhari) writing the Senate on January 17, 2017 to clear the SGF and another Presidency suspending him today? Whichever way one looks at it, it gives no other impression than that of confusion in the government.”
Speaking further, the governor asked: “Is their presidential committee also going to tell Nigerians those who abandoned N49 million cash in an airport that has CCTV cameras? What the owner of the N448 million the EFCC said it found in a shop at LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos?
“In all these, what I see is a government trying frantically to cover-up corrupt acts of its functionaries but like I said before now, ‎even though we know that the APC-led federal government has the capacity to sweep it under the carpet like many others before it, Nigerians will have it on record that they are being ruled by a government of the more you look, the less you see.”