Why did Buhari wait for the messy Osborne scandal before suspending SGF | Fayose suspects cover-up

by Dolapo Adelana

Ekiti Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described the suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal and Director General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke, as a cover-up within the presidency.

Fayose queried the setting up a three-man committee to investigate the crimes allegedly perpetrated by both men. and sidelining the anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Department of State Services (DSS).

He wondered why agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Department of State Services (DSS) were not asked to handle the investigation.

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He wondered why the same President that wrote a letter to the Senate exonerating Lawal and clearing him of any wrongdoing now came back to suspend him from office over alleged involvement in the Presidential Initiative for the North East grass cutting scam.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Communication, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said, “Would the President have set up a probe panel if these scams were linked to anyone in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or those members of his party that are not in his good books?

“Most importantly, what business does Presidential Committee have with investigation of crime? Are they telling Nigerians that they have lost confidence in all the intelligence and investigative agencies of the government, including the EFCC and DSS?

“The Buhari-led Federal Government is operating like many governments within one government. There appears to be many Presidencies within the Presidency and this is the reason for the confusion everywhere.

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“Nigerians can no longer be deceived by a government that protects its own people whenever they are accused of corruption while setting the DSS and EFCC to invade houses of members of opposition parties, especially those perceived as having presidential ambition in 2019 in the night to arrest and detain them indefinitely even when corruption allegations against them have not been proved.

“Did the President not write a letter dated January 17, 2017, to the Senate, exonerating the SGF? So what has changed in the case of the SGF? Was his announced suspension just for balancing?

“Why waiting for this messy OsborneGate to act on the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) grass-cutting scam? Could it have been a case of one Presidency (Buhari) writing the Senate on January 17, 2017, to clear the SGF and another Presidency suspending him today?

“Whichever way one looks at it, it gives no other impression than that of confusion in the government.

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“Is their presidential committee also going to tell Nigerians those who abandoned N49 million cash in an airport that has CCTV cameras? What the owner of the N448 million the EFCC said it found in a shop at LEGICO Shopping Plaza, Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos?

“In all these, what I see is a government trying frantically to cover-up corrupt acts of its functionaries but like I said before now, even though we know that the APC-led federal government has the capacity to sweep it under the carpet like many others before it, Nigerians will have it on record that they are being ruled by a government of the more you look, the less you see.”

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