President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal over allegations of violation of law and due process in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) four months after the Senate adopted an interim report recommending the sack of the SGF. It will be recalled that the Senate had recommended the resignation of the SGF after considering a report by an Ad-hoc Committee set up in the Senate to investigate the Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East.
However, despite the aforementioned resolution and the allegations contained in the report, President Buhari had objected to the SGF’s resignation via a letter on grounds that the interim report amounted to a minority report as it was signed by 3 out of 9 members and could not be sufficiently termed a “Committee report”. The report was also dismissed for failing to establish that the Senate complied with the principles of fair hearing in giving Engineer Babachir Lawal or the company linked to him (Rholavision Engineering Limited) in the award of contracts under PINE, the opportunity to defend itself against the allegations.
Among others, the report had criticised the entire procurement activities undertaken by PINE as breaching section 43 of the Public Procurement Act 2007 and number 2498 of the Federal Government’s Financial Rules and Regulations which set the principles of accountability and transparency in the procurement of goods, works or services. It also criticised PINE for taking advantage of the emergency situation contract award in the Public Procurement Act 2007 to inflate contracts and award contracts to top government officials, cronies, family members and associates. Specifically, Engr Babachir Lawal was alleged to be a signatory of Rholavision Engineering Limited, which was said to have received at least 95 percent of the payment of the contracts it was to execute even though some of the contracts were yet to be fully executed.
The report had also been critical of Federal government agencies that claimed to have spent huge sums of money in alleviating the situation in the North East stating that it was not substantiated from the state of the IDP camps. It also underscored the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis buttressing that a projected 5.1 million people would face serious food shortages and that more than half of the displaced children in camps were out of school due to lack of classroom infrastructure, inadequate teaching materials and teachers.
For now, Engr. Babachir Lawal’s suspension remains pending until after a three man Committee composed of Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the National Security Adviser Mohammed Babagana Monguno, conclude their investigations. The three-man Committee chaired by the Vice President have been given 14 days by the President to submit their report.
