SGF Babachir Lawal shuns Senate …Lawmakers ask Customs boss to resign

“National Assembly resolutions rarely carry weight with the executive arm of government as observed since the return to civil rule in 1999.  The former director general, Securities and Exchange Commission Aruma Otteh had a running battle with National Assembly during President Goodluck Jonathan administration.  The government ignored the legislators’ call for her sack. For two years the National Assembly refused to approve SEC budget but it was able to run its affairs successfully.”

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, has said he will not appear before the Senate panel on Thursday, citing a subsisting court case on the matter.

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 the chairman of the panel, Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna) on Wednesday that he would not be able to appear before the committee 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 N188m 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 utilized 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).

Although the panel held a 3-day public hearing between December 6 and 8, 2016, some of the invited stakeholders, including the SGF, did not attend the session.

The committee’s report indicted the SGF as a result of which the Senate resolved that he should resign and face prosecution for alleged fraud.

The Senate also said it would provide evidence against the SGF to President Muhammadu Buhari in order to sack him.

But the SGF said he was not invited by the ad-hoc committee during the investigation and accused the Senate of not giving him fair hearing.

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.

Consequently, the ad-hoc panel re-invited Lawal in a letter dated March 15, to appear before it today as part of efforts to give him fair hearing on the matter, a request the SGF turned down yesterday.

…Senators ask Customs CG to resign

Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday asked the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), retired Col. Hameed Ali, saying he is unfit to hold any public office.

This followed the failure of the Customs boss to appear before plenary yesterday dressed in uniform to answer questions on a new duty policy.

The senators demanded his immediate resignation from office because of his attitude toward the Senate as an institution.

The Customs CG did not appear owing to a suit filed by a lawyer, Mohammed Ibrahim before an Abuja High Court, seeking a determination on whether it is part of the oversight responsibility of the Senate to compel Ali to wear Customs uniform.

The senators also resolved at Wednesday plenary that the Customs Service must cancel the duty policy and look for proper means of collecting vehicle duty at entry points into Nigeria.

Discussing the matter in Ali’s absence at the plenary, senators were dismayed that the Attorney General of the Federation “had the guts” to write them a letter, advising them “to stay all actions in this case until the constitutional issues raised in the matters are resolved by the courts.”

They condemned the AGF for attempting to derail the Senate from carrying out its constitutional responsibility.

Senators equally resolved to write President Buhari to intimate him on the resolution and the attitudes of his appointees toward the legislature for him to reprimand them.

The senators resolved further that the resolution would be forwarded to the House of Representatives for concurrence so that it would be a National Assembly affair and not that of the Senate alone.

National Assembly resolutions rarely carry weight with the executive arm of government as observed since the return to civil rule in 1999.

The former director general, Securities and Exchange Commission Aruma Otteh had a running battle with National Assembly during President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The government ignored the legislators’ call for her sack. For two years the National Assembly refused to approve SEC budget but it was able to run its affairs successfully.

Also, Jonathan’s powerful petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, continued to ignore National Assembly summons and survived despite resolutions for her sack.

The same goes for finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Nasir El-Rufai, ex-President Obasanjo’s FCT minister remained in his position despite his caustic ‘silence is the best answer to fool’ remark about the legislators.