The Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN), an NGO sponsored by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, to absolve him of blame during his N220million grass-cutting scandal, has been co-opted to blackmail the leadership of the National Assembly with frivolous reports of a house-rent scandal.
Sources in the SGFs office, revealed that the Co-convener of CATBAN Ibrahim Garba Wala, has been paid N5million by the SGF to coordinate the offensive against the National Assembly leadership, in order to blackmail the legislature into absolving him (Lawal), of all wrongdoing.
Recall that despite investigations by government officials and the Senator Shehu-Sani led Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on the Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East, CATBAN was the only organization to issue a report that the SGF’s company, Rholavision, had indeed performed it’s N200million grass-cutting contract in Yobe.
Wala, repeatedly went on television and radio programmes to state that the SGF was not guilty despite overwhelming evidence. However, facts emerged, during the course of the Senate’s investigation that the SGF allegedly awarded the spurious contract of N220 million for the removal of wild grass and the provision of 115 hectares of simplified village irrigation in Yobe State and how the company allegedly subsequently transferred the money into another firm, Rholavision Engineering Limited, which is owned by the SGF.
The N220million was then paid between March and September 2015 to the company’s account in EcoBank along the Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna, with account numbers 0182001809 and 1180010559651.
Despite the aforementioned evidence, the SGF sponsored CATBAN to issue a report that claimed that his company had executed the contract, and that he had in no way violated any laws, despite clear conflicts of interests that emanated from the fact that the SGF – at the time that the contract was awarded – was still a Director on the Rholavision Board.
Udechi Okoro writes from Abuja.
