Few days after President Muhammadu Buhari without any
shred of cogent and verifiable reason, dissolved the panel for recovery of
public property, a leading pro-democracy and civil Rights advocacy group –
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has accused the government
of a “big cover up”.
HURIWA has also stated that the action of the government
in hurriedly dissolving the panel only when there are allegations and counter
accusations about the philosophy behind setting up the panel only goes to
justify the groundswell of suspicions in and outside government quarters that
it was not set up for any altruistic but rather ulterior motives and to carry
out a widespread agenda against specific targets that are not in the good books
of President Muhammadu Buhari and his unelected but influential Cabal.
The Rights group is of the position that the dissolution
coming within weeks after the chairman of the panel Mr. Obono Obla was
suspended following his investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices And
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for alleged fraud, looks like a subtle
validation of the claims made by the embattled suspended boss of the then
property recovery panel whereby he accused the vice president Professor Yemi
Osinbanjo of undermining the work of the panel for selfish reasons.
Speaking through the National Coordinator Comrade
Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf,
HURIWA berated the government for the dissolution of the property recovery
panel even when it has failed to transparently investigate all the allegations
and counter allegations trailing the suspension of the then chairman Mr. Obono
Obla, nor did the government respect the statutory provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act on full disclosure by failing to inform Nigerians in black and
white why it has to unceremoniously dissolve the special presidential
investigation panel even when the same government elaborately celebrated the
suspension of the chairman of the panel who in any event had made earth shaking
revelations on how the number two citizen of Nigeria allegedly abused his power
to undermine the implementation of the assignment of the now dissolved panel.
“We think that sweeping all the allegations under the
carpets amounts to elevating impunity as the official mantra of this
administration even as we do not see any sensitive, rational and sound argument
for the dissolution of the panel which should have been allowed to operate if
the intention of the presidency in setting it up in the first place was genuine
and legally permissible."
"Why throw the baby with the bad water? Is the
government then conceding that indeed the panel was set up to carry out
politically motivated witch-hunt against members of the opposition party but
quickly dissolved it when it went after beloved family members of the powerful
cabal? Is the government conceding that it is guilty of exercising poor
judgment in setting up the panel ab initio and authorising the spending of
humongous public fund to carry out the operations? If the central government is
saying it does not trust the integrity of the panel anymore, why has it not
publicly disclose the quantum of cash that went into sponsoring the panel and
also transparently disclose to Nigerians the extent of recoveries made or is
the government saying that a panel it set up ended up as a cesspool of
inefficiency and a money guzzling machine? Why not let the panel run even if
there is reasons to make personnel changes since there are competent persons
within the same panel that could have been made in charge of the Presidential
panel?”
HURIWA stated thus: " We haven't forgotten that the
suspended Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel on the Recovery
of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, said the planned investigation by the
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission would not
be fair due to the closeness of the commission’s Chairman, Prof Bolaji
Owansanoye, to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. As committed patriots and human
rights practitioners, we took special note that he Mr.Obono-Obla
stated that his job fa ed executive interferences from the vice president
in a suit he filed on Tuesday to challenge the said probe for alleged
certificate forgery and extortion and we also know that among other
things, he contended in the suit marked, HC/ABJ/CS/980/2019, that the ICPC, had
no powers to invite, arrest, detain, investigate, or prosecute him in
connection with alleged falsification of academic certificates."
"We know based on public knowledge that through his
lawyer, Mr Faruk Khamagam, Obono-Obla also filed an ex parte application
seeking an urgent hearing of the suit just as the head of
the legal unit of the SPIP while Obono-Obla held sway as the panel’s Chairman,
Dr Celsus Ukpong, deposed to the affidavit filed in support of the main suit
and the ex parte application.
"Nigerians were told that with Owasanoye as the
ICPC chairman, the anti-corruption agency would not conduct a fair probe of his
case just as he Obono-Obla
linked his travails to the investigations he launched against influential
persons and organizations."
HURIWA however regrettably recall that President
Muhammadu Buhari dissolved the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the
Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) as currently constituted with Mr. Okoi
Obono-Obla as Chairman just as the Attorney-General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice has been directed to immediately take over all outstanding
investigations and other activities of the SPIP.
The Rights group said this information was contained in
a statement issued recently by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity,
Chief Femi Adesina.
HURIWA recalled that the panel was established in August
2017 by the then Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN to investigate
specifically mandated cases of corruption, abuse of office and similar offences
by public officers.
HURIWA has however maintained that government would be
taken Nigerians for a ride should the President fail to explain to Nigerians in
greater details the fuller reasons for the dissolution of the Panel and also
conduct independent investigation into all the allegations.
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