The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, has again cancelled his scheduled appearance before the Senate on his alleged mismanagement of funds meant for the rehabilitation of the North-East.
Lawal, in a letter to the upper chamber on Wednesday, had threatened to take legal action against the lawmakers following their insistence on probing him after he was exonerated by President Muhammadu Buhari, but made a u-turn, agreeing to appear before the committee.
However, he has now stalled on honouring the invitation, appealing to the Senate to reschedule his appearance before its Ad Hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East, which is tasked with carrying out the investigation.
This was conveyed in a letter dated March 22, 2017, wherein the embattled SGF said he would not be able to appear before the panel “primarily because of a pressing engagement of government which clashed with the date and time of the hearing.”
The Shehu Sani-led Senate ad-hoc committee on humanitarian crisis in the north-east has postponed the second investigative hearing on the mounting humanitarian crisis in the North-East.
The hearing was earlier slated for today, Thursday.
According to the clerk to the ad-hoc committee, Lawal Bagaudu, who broke the news to the media in Abuja, the decision to postpone the hearing followed the refusal of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and his company, Rholavision Ltd, to appear before the committee, citing legal reasons and bereavement respectively.
He said: “The hearing has been postponed to a later date because the MD of Rholavision company must attend.”
Bagaudu further disclosed that no new date had been fixed.
Lawal got into trouble last December after he was indicted by a Senate probe panel for the way he handled contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative for the North East, PINE.
There have been widespread calls for his sack and prosecution, although he continues to enjoy the confidence of the president.
