The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has said the President didn’t clear the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal of corruption as widely held.
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?”
The Presidential spokesnan said the report was an interim one and that a final report was, therefore, being expected.
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.
