David Babachir Lawal, secretary to government of the federation (SGF), says the “senate is talking balderdash” by asking him to resign for allegedly mismanaging IDP funds.
Lawal has been accused of mismanaging funds meant for internally displaced persons (IDPS) and this led to an investigation by an ad hoc committee of the senate.
While submitting its report to the upper legislative chamber, the committee alleged that contracts were awarded to his cronies and family members of top government officials.
The committee also said that Rholavision Engineering Limited, a company, which had Lawal as director, was awarded a consultancy contract.
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Following these findings by the committee, the senate on Wednesday called for the resignation of Lawal after a motion was moved by Baba Kaka Garbai.
But reacting, the SGF said he resigned from Rholavision Engineering before taking the SGF appointment.
He said while the committee was sitting, he was not given an opportunity to make his own case on the allegations raised against him.
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“The senate is talking balderdash; it has developed the habit of bring him down syndrome,” he said.
“Nigerians have decided that we should destroy our best. We should all destroy the promising and best among us by bringing people down without a cause. This is just how I saw it.
“I have the report of the senate committee in which it was said that I didn’t resign from Rholavision Nigeria Limited. Let me tell you, Rholavision was formed by me in December 1990, and it has been a company that was run very successfully.
“Now, when I was appointed secretary to the government of the federation, I resigned from that company on 18th August 2015. I can see that in their report, they are talking about 2016. I don’t know where they got their facts.
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“By the way, it is very instructive that when the committee was sitting, no effort was ever made to invite me to come and make a submission. It is therefore, surprising that they devoted a whole session of today (yesterday) at maligning me, claiming what is not true without even giving me the chance to come and put my own case before them.”
2 comments
even if he has resigned from the company, he never heard of the word arm’s length and related party transactions…
This man is the arch-type of the corrupt Nigerian public officer. He fails to see that being the founder of Rholavision makes it a case of having conflict of interest. Being a non Director does not mean that he relinquished his shareholding in the company which entitles him to a share of the profits of the contract. For this to happen right under the nose of PMB shows that corruption has become a culture in Nigeria. All the noise about Dasukigate are mere political shrills meant to paint PDP as being a harem of corruption , whereas APC is a haven of Chameleonic corrupt robbers masquerading as saints.