The National Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Development Programme on Tuesday called for the prosecution of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal over aalkwged fraud in the IDPs programme.

The NHRC and UNDP stated this in a 103-page draft report, titled, ‘North-East Nigeria: Human Rights Assess Report,’ which was released in Abuja on Tuesday.

They alleged that the government, through the Presidential Initiative on the North-East, spent the bulk of the resources on contracts from which top officials, including the ex-SGF, Lawal, “immensely benefited”.

They said, “As of July 2016, a total of N8.352bn had been released to the Presidential Initiative on the North-East. N6.326bn had been spent leaving a balance of N2.026bn.

“However, PINE paid less attention to the critical needs of the IDPs in the areas of housing, food, education and healthcare, but rather used the bulk of the resources on contracts that were found to have immensely benefited some public officials including the now-suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.

“Public procurement rules and extant federal financial guidelines were breached in the award of the contracts.

“Prima facie cases of conflict of interest were established and companies were paid as at a time they had not finished the assigned jobs, whilst kick-backs were made by some companies to others where public officials had clear interests.”

Azeez