Less than 24 hours after Babachir Lawal, secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), told the Senate that he would not appear before it, he had made a dramatic U-turn.
Lawal, who claimed to have gone to court to challenge his invitation by Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Humanitarian Crisis in the North East, now seeks a new date for him to appear.
The letter dated March 23, 2017 and addressed to Shehu Sani, chairman, Senate Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East.
According to Lawal, he is not able to attend the public hearing slated for today (yesterday), “because of an engagement of government which clashed with the date and time of the hearing.”
The document personally signed by the SGF read: “Your letter of invitation to appear before the above committee refers.
“I wish to kindly request that you draw the attention of the other members of the Committee that I will not be able to appear before the Committee primarily because of a pressing engagement of Government which clashed with the date and time of the hearing.
“I kindly request a rescheduling of the hearing, please. Please, accept my highest regards.”
The faceoff between the SGF and the Senate came after the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami wrote the legislative body that the Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, would not appear before it in the agency’s uniform, citing a subsisting court case on the matter.
Meanwhile, the committee has announced the postponement of the public hearing.
Sani, who maintained that his committee only received the SGF’s second letter, told senators in plenary that a new date would be announced “to give a second opportunity to those persons who were either deliberately or conspicuously absent in the first meeting.”
When BusibessDay visited Conference Room 022, Senate New Building – venue of the public hearing – it was deserted as only three stakeholders were seen there.
One of them, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were still awaiting the chairman to formally brief them on the development.
The main entrance to the National Assembly Complex, Conference Room 022 were already adorned with banner of the event, billed to have commenced by 10am even as the programme was also slated in Thursday’s Order Paper.
Recall that a Senate ad-hoc panel had summoned the SGF over alleged fraud in the award of contract by the defunct Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).
But the SGF said in a letter addressed to Sani on Wednesday said he would not be able to appear before the panel because he had gone to court to challenge the invitation.
Babachir came under allegations that PINE, which is under his office, used the sum of N270 million in clearing grasses in some communities in the North East as part of the programmes under the initiative.
PINE was also alleged to have spent the sum of N188 million for Nigerian refugees living in Minawao, Republic of Cameroon. His personal company was alleged to have been the ultimate beneficiary of the contract through a proxy.
The Senate in October last year constituted the ad-hoc committee to conduct a public hearing to ascertain how much was released to PINE and how it utilised the funds.
The committee was also mandated to investigate allegations of diversion of grains and other food items from the Strategic Grain Reserves, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other sources for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
In its interim report on December 13, 2016, the panel indicted him and asked him to resign.
Following the indictment, President Buhari ordered the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, to investigate the allegations.
The Attorney General’s investigation cleared the SGF and the President in a letter dated January 24, communicated the outcome to the Senate.
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