I won’t appear before you, SGF tells Senate

Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Babachir Lawal, on Wednesday, told lawmakers that he would not honour an invitation extended to him by the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East.

Instead, Mr Lawal said he has gone to court to challenge the invitation.

Similarly, the Managing Director of Lawal’s company, Rholavision Engineering Company, has written to the Senate, hinting that he had approached the court to challenge the invitation extended to him and would not appear.

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The adhoc committee had on Tuesday, issued a fresh summon on both the SGF, Mr ‎Lawal and his company’s Managing Director, as part of the ongoing investigation into claims that funds earmarked for humanitarian crisis in the North-East were misappropriated.

However, in separate letters dated March 22nd, 2017 and addressed to the committee through its chairman, Senator Shehu Sani, Wednesday, the duo said they would not appear before the committee, explaining that they had already gone to court to challenge the committee’s invitation to them to appear before it.

“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 I have gone to court to challenge the invitation among others,” Lawal said in the letter to Senator Sani.

When contacted, Senator Sani said in spite of the letters from the invitees hinting of their decision not to appear before his committee, the panel’s report on the subject matter would be treated in plenary tomorrow.

According to the earlier letter from the committee inviting them, they were expected to appear as part of the ongoing investigation into claims that funds earmarked for humanitarian crisis in the North-East were mismanaged.

The letter reads: “The Senate at its sitting on 4th October, 2016, debated on a motion “mounting humanitarian crisis in the north east” after which an ad-hoc committee was constituted.

“The committee was to conduct a public hearing in order to ascertain how much has been released to the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) and also to ascertain how these funds have been utilized from inception to date.

“The committee was also expected to investigate the diversion of grains and other food items from the Strategic Grain Reserves, NEMA and other sources for the IDPs.

“Consequently, the committee held a three day public hearing between Dec. 6th and 8th 2016, even though some of the invited stakeholders refused to attend.”

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