The
Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, has denied the
allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari has cleared the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal of corruption as widely
held.
The presidential spokesman stated this while featuring
on ‘Ra’ayi Riga’, a BBC Hausa audience participation programme, on Friday. The Presidential
spokesperson said Buhari only acted in response to the senate’s report which
indicted Lawal of fraudulent act.
Shehu
said the criticisms that have trailed the development were unwarranted “because
his letter to the senate did not dwell on whether the SGF was guilty or not
guilty.
“What
President Buhari has done is simply to act in a response to a report by the
SGF, Babachir David Lawal, who insisted that, he and the companies cited were
not given a fair hearing by the National Assembly.
“President
Buhari’s communication to Nigeria’s lawmakers was simply this: If the SGF was
not given a fair hearing, can you now give him one?”
Shehu
said inspite of Buhari’s strong stance on corruption, “he believes in due
process and in fair hearing, without which, our democracy cannot be taken
seriously by Nigerians or the international community.”
Recall
that the senate had recently called for Lawal’s arrest and prosecution,
following an Interim Report by its ad-hoc committee on mounting Humanitarian
crisis in the North East which indicted him of fraudulent act.
In
the report, the committee alleged that Lawal who is the Chairman of the
Presidential Initiative of the North East, PINE, awarded contracts to a company
liked to him.
However,
the President, in a letter to the senate rejected the call by the upper
legislative house, citing some infractions in the report.
Reacting
to the President’s letter, Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, who
heads the senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee, expressed disappointment at the
presidency’s response to the committee’s report.
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