There is no doubt that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo-led panel, set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the circumstances surrounding the recent suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Babachir Lawal, and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke, from office, has become the cynosure of all eyes.
The two top shots were suspended by President Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday, last week.
While Lawal was suspended over a contract scandal in the Internally Displaced Persons camp in the NorthEast as alleged by a Senate ad hoc committee, the NIA boss was asked to step aside, following the recent discovery of more than $43.4million, N23million and £27,000 (totallingN13bn) in the Osborne Towers, a private residence in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Oke was alleged to have kept the money where it was found by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, acting on a tipoff from a whistle-blower. He is under probe for the NIA’s role in the seized monies.
President Buhari had, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, directed that Lawal be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, which bears on alleged violation of law and due process in the award of contracts in the troubled region.
Following this, a probe panel headed by Osinbajo, was constituted to investigate allegations against the top government officials.
The committee also has the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Moguno, as members.
The Committee is to submit its report to the President within 14 days. Part of the task of the committee is to investigate why the NIA kept such a huge amount of cash in a private house.
Also, media reports had indicated last week that the suspended NIA DG had begun to sing like a bird, informing Osinbajo and the NSA that the money, which was originally $289,202,382, was got from the National Petroleum Investment Management Service on February 25, 2015, based on the instruction of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
With the development now placing the two top government functionaries at the centre of the storm, Nigerians are earnestly awaiting the outcome of the Osinbajo-led investigation panel, especially with regard to the suspended SGF.
The Presidency’s decision to set up a panel comprising cabinet members to investigate both Lawal and Oke has, however, continued to attract comments by concerned personalities and bodies.
PDP’S STAND
In its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party, under the court-sacked National Caretaker Committee, led by a former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, urged the Federal Government to constitute an independent body to investigate corruption allegations against the suspended SGF and NIA boss.
The party, according to the Publicity Secretary of the Committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said that such probe panel should comprise eminent Nigerians with proven records of integrity, independence and competence. It explained that an independent investigation of the allegations against Lawal and the NIA DG would ensure transparency.
“This is the only way by which we can have confidence that a thorough and impartial investigation will be conducted. It is a way by which President Muhammadu Buhari also can reassure the general public that there are no sacred cows in his government for whom there are different sets of rules,’’ the party stated.
The PDP recalled that the Senate had in 2016 set up an ad hoc committee headed by Sen. Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central, to investigate the expenditure and activities of the Presidential Initiative for North-East.
The committee also investigated the alarming rate of the humanitarian crisis in the North-East, occasioned by the diversion of grains and other food supplies meant for the IDPs in that region.
The PDP said that at the end of its assignment, the ad hoc committee indicted Lawal in the mismanagement of PINE funds and award of a multimillion naira grass-cutting contract to one of his companies, Rholavision Engineering Limited.
The party recalled that contrary to expectations, the Presidency, in a letter dated Jan. 17, 2017 to the Senate, discredited the committee’s recommendations and refused to sack or prosecute Lawal, clearing him of all wrong-doing, instead.
According to the party, instead of arresting and detaining Lawal, as being done to other Nigerians, “there has been a double standard of suspending him for an investigation by a committee set up by the President.
“We are at a loss as to why the President would set up a panel comprising members of his cabinet to investigate other very senior powerful members of the same Executive.
“Where is the transparency in that? This is not that we doubt the integrity of the Vice President, who we have the utmost respect for, and other members of the committee.
“But, it appears the matter is being settled within the government closet without the transparency, independence and impartiality necessary in a situation like this.’’
The PDP further stated that recently, the President directed the Attorney-General of the Federation to investigate the SGF’s involvement in the PINE contracts. “That investigation cleared the SGF of all wrong-doing in the grasscutting scandal as stated above. “It is amazing that the President, who swiftly accepted the recommendations of the Attorney-General, would now suddenly set up another panel, including the same AttorneyGeneral, to investigate the matter again,” the party said.
ANALYSTS, LAWYERS JOIN THE FRAY
Similarly, political observers and analysts across the country have been expressing critical views about the presidential panel saddled with probing the suspended SGF and NIA boss. According to them, there are already issues which may shape the outcome of the investigation, especially concerning the SGF.
For instance, against Senate’s earlier submission some months ago, the President sent a letter to the upper chamber clearing Lawal of corruption allegations, based on the report from the AGF.
The letter also clearly stated that only three out of nine senators signed the report of the Senate Committee report investigating the SGF, claiming that he was not given the opportunity of a fair hearing.
President Buhari, in the letter, also said, “Non-application of principles of fair-hearing to SGF Lawal means we have no choice than to absolve him of corrupt allegations.” However, Senator Shehu Sani denied President Buhari’s allegations that SGF Lawal was not invited or given fair-hearing by the Senate ad hoc committee. Apparently irked by the President’s reaction, Sani said, “President Buhari’s government uses insecticide to fight corruption in public, but uses deodorant to fight corruption in the Presidency”.
He also argued that contrary to the President’s claims, seven out of nine senators signed his Committee’s interim report, adding, “Buhari’s letter absolving SGF is full of falsehood.”
Against this backdrop, analysts are of the view that the suspension of the SGF and the NIA DG clearly validates Senator Sani’s claim about the President’s disposition to fighting corruption cases involving members of his cabinet.
They insist that both the SGF and the NIA boss ought to have been arrested and handed over to the EFCC for investigation and prosecution.
They add that the setting up of a special panel by the President to investigate the two government officials showed that the president does not have confidence in the EFCC, hence the decision to avail the suspended government officials the luxury of investigation by the Executive.
Political watchers also express fears that the two highly placed government officials may eventually go scot-free, in spite of the fact that they are being placed under the scrutiny of a panel headed by the Vice President.
A political analyst, Nasiru Abubakar, said that there were clear indications that the investigation of the suspended government officials would not end in taking any serious punitive action against them.
Making reference to the off-hand manner with which the SGF at first dismissed his suspension, when approached by newsmen to clear the air on the development, Abubakar said, “The reaction of Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, was such that when the press told him about his suspension, he rhetorically asked, ‘suspended by who?’ When told by the Presidency, he again inquired, ‘who is the Presidency?’ This showed that he saw himself as being too big to be suspended by anyone.”
A lawyer, Mr. Liboroous Oshoma, while speaking on the development, said, “Are we saying that the EFCC is not capable again? Why should a panel now be set up when it comes to cases involving the Executive? In the case of Saraki and the judges, no committee was set up. So, why is it that these people are now being given executive investigation?”
Oshoma also said that the Senate committee’s investigation report submitted to the Presidency some months ago should have been adopted in investigating and sanctioning the SGF.
“The Senate investigation report on the SGF was submitted to the President. Are we saying the Senate is not credible enough to investigate the matter? All I see about this is that Executive treatment is given to SGF and this will definitely affect the outcome of the result of the Presidential Panel,” he said.
Aside from this, some analysts are also of the opinion that though the panel is headed by the VP, whose integrity is not in doubt, there is a high tendency that it will handle the SGF with kid gloves.
They argue that since the earlier report from the President to the Senate cleared the SGF of corruption, that of the Vice President’s panel may not want to contradict the earlier one by Buhari, which gave Lawal a clean bill of health.
In this regard, prominent lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, said, “Although I have already congratulated President Buhari on his decision to suspend the SGF and DG NIA, I want to say that an aspect of the situation that worries me is the setting up of the three-man panel to investigate the suspended personnel. My concern is that after the Senate indicted the SGF and urged the President to relief him of his position, the President later wrote a letter to the Senate that he had read their decision and has heard all the facts, but that there was no reason to call upon him to relief Babachir Lawal of his position.
“It took Senator Shehu Sani, the senator who headed the committee on the North East matter, to come out to show facts and figure and several evidence, calling on Babachir to come and defend himself. I am saying all these to show that transparency and accountability demand that a matter to be investigated should be done thoroughly, that no one will be left in doubt that there was no compromise. It, therefore, becomes difficult to speak on how the Vice President will come out with a report contradicting his boss’ earlier letter, which says Babachir Lawal was innocent, to do that. I am waiting.
“On Ambassador Oke, whoever that is found in such a case is always hunted by the EFCC, like it was done to the judges. So, the question is, why is the President not going through that usual way of sending the EFCC and the DSS after these people who have been accused? Why are we suddenly having a special panel headed by the Vice President? Are we having two laws for different people? Are we operating another rule of law? It is in this regard that I think much is left to be desired by the appointment of the special committee.
THUMBS UP FOR BUHARI
But an elder statesman, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, argued that the decision of the President to set up a committee to investigate the two top government officials was in line with the rule of law.
Mohammed also chided the major opposition party, the PDP, over its stand on the issue, saying that the party was mischievous.
“As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with the President setting up a panel, which is headed by Vice President Osinbajo. People in government can always investigate one another with transparency. Moreover, these people are already suspended. So, I have no doubt in my mind that the panel will do a thorough job. On PDP, I don’t know what they want. They are being mischievous on the matter,” he said.
A former chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, Alhaji Adamu Song, said, “The truth about the matter is that people have yet to appreciate the fact that it is the Vice President that is heading the panel to do the investigation. I am not surprised that some people in this country are professional complainants. They don’t see anything good about this government and they will not see it. I don’t know who is that ‘independent’ they are talking about.
“Will the investigation be done out of government? So, what are we talking about? To me, you cannot have a better investigation constituted by the Federal Government and headed by the Vice President. I have no doubt about the ability of the Vice President and his integrity.”
