Although it stressed that it has taken special note of the
temporary punitive sanctions imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari, a Rights
group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS
ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)said the suspension of the Secretary to the
government of the Federation Babachir Lawal and the Director General of the
National Intelligence Agency Mr. Ayo Oke were not far-reaching enough.
Besides, the pro-democracy and Civil rights body- HURIWA said particularly that the
suspension of the Secretary to the government of the Federation after several
months of his indictments by the Federal Parliament was ill-advised and has
conveyed the impression of failed concerted attempts by the Presidency to grant
him softlanding even against the widespread calls for his dismissal and
prosecution over the alleged financial scams trailing the awards of
contracts for the rehabilitation of the destroyed North East of Nigeria.
The Rights group said the decision to set up a politically
tainted and compromised probe panel to investigate matters within the
jurisdictions of established financial crimes investigative institutions
amounted to double standards and has conveyed the idea that there are two sets
of legal models for investigations of members of the ruling party and another
for the members of the political opposition and other category of Nigerians
allegedly in conflict with the law. This approach is faulty and suspicious.
This discriminatory applications of different mechanisms to investigate alleged
crime is a breach of the constitutional principle of Rule of law".
On the
suspension of the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency Mr
Ayo Oke following his inexplicable role in the discovery of $43 million in a
private Ikoyi residential apartment in Lagos, the Rights group applauded the
President but dismissed the setting up of a three-man team of investigators
made up of the Vice president Professor Yomi Osinbanjo and the Federal Attorney
General and Minister of Justice Alhaji Abubakar Malami (SAN) and National
Security Adviser as a political joke taken too far.
HURIWA has therefore cautioned government not to use the three
man team of investigators made up of members of the All Progressives Congress
as a smokescreen and choreographed contraption to undermine the integrity of
the investigation that ought to have been carried out statutorily by the
Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) and the ICPC.
"We are at a lost to understand the rationale for
constituting an Adhoc investigative panel made up of politicians from one
political party to investigate the mysterious stashing of the massive sum of
$43 million in a private residence when the governor of Rivers state produced
by another party- People's Democratic party Mr. Nyesom Wike and a former Aviation
minister Chief Femi Fani Kayode also of the opposition People's Democratic
party had alleged that the fund were diverted by the immediate past governor of
Rivers State Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi who is a top flight national
stakeholder of the ruling national party of All Progressives Congress
(APC) and an influential kitchen cabinet member of President Muhammadu
Buhari's administration?"
"This panel will not be independent and non-partisan
and therefore not expected to turn out any genuinely objective findings
particularly on the Ikoyi $43 million. Mr. President would have set up a
totally independent judicial commission made up of Justices of the Supreme
court found to be totally non-partisan and credible or refer the matters to the
statutory bodies such as EFCC or ICPC".
HURIWA has therefore
urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dismantle the panel and refer both men to
institutions set up for anti-graft investigation such as the Economic and
Financial Crimes commission and the ICPC.
HURIWA recalled that President Muhammadu
Buhari had ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law
and due process made against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation
(SGF), Mr David Babachir Lawal, in the award of contracts under the Presidential
Initiative on the North East (PINE).
The President has also directed the suspension of the SGF
from office pending the outcome of the investigations.
In a related development, the President has ordered a full
scale investigation into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local
currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a
residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National
Intelligence Agency (NIA) has made a claim.
The investigation is also to enquire into the
circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by
whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to
establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security
procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.
The President has also directed the suspension of the Director
General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the
investigation.
The
Rights group said the terms of references of this panel shows that Mr.
President has already made up his mind that indeed the fund found in the Ikoyi
residential apartment belongs to NIA when it is clear that the Rivets State
Governor Mr Nuesom Wike has made strong claims to the fund ($43million) as
belonging to Rivers State government allegedly diverted by the immediate past
Rivers State governor who is a serving minister. "The panel is a nullity
and can't be trusted".
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