Suspended SGF fails to appear before senate committee

April 27

12:50 2017

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Babachir Lawal, suspended secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), on Thursday failed to appear before the senate ad-hoc committee investigating the humanitarian crisis in the north-east.

The committee, led by Shehu Sani, waited for Lawal for at least two hours but Lawal did not show up.

After the wait, Shehu informed journalists that the committee would go ahead with its report.

He explained that the invitation to Lawal was out of fair hearing and an opportunity to defend himself.

“We are here expecting him to appear before us to make his presentation. We learnt he appeared before the vice-president panel investigating this matter,” Sani said.

“We are here in fulfillment of giving him a fair hearing. Now we have been here since 10am and waited for him and it’s 12. It is clear that he is not appearing.

“We will now go ahead and conclude our interim report. We see this as deliberate to absent himself from the committee.”

On his part, Ben-Murray Bruce, senator representing Bayelsa east and member of committee, said if Lawal had showed up they would have been able to clarify some issues.

“I think it is sad that he did not show up. We are disappointed with the whole process,” he said.

Lawal is accused of awarding contracts to his companies without recourse ‎to due process.