Senate invites SGF Babachir Lawal to appear before it on March 23rd over the N270m grass cutting allegation

The last has not been heard of the faceoff between the Senate and the Presidency over the Senate's Interim Report on the Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East released last December that indicted the Secretary to the government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.  

 

The committee report indicted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, who doubles as the chair of the Presidential Initiative on North East PINE, of awarding contracts to a company which he has links to, an allegation he has since denied. 

At a public hearing organized in October last year, the committee heard of how Babachir allegedly used his influence to award a contract of N270 million to a company just to clear grasses at IDP camps. The committee in its report, stated that it discovered that most of the contracts were bogus and awarded to government officials or their associates. Dino Melaye and some other Senators who spoke during the deliberation of the committee report, called for the resignation of Lawal.

President Buhari then wrote a letter to the Senate, stating he cannot order the arrest and prosecution of Babachir whom he says was not given fair hearing during the public hearing(Read here.)

The Senate has now fixed March 23rd for the public hearing.