The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released detained former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal. The former SGF is being investigated by the anti-graft agency for corruption where he was released on administrative bail on Friday evening. Lawal was detained by the EFCC on Wednesday morning after he honoured an invitation to the commission’s head office in Abuja, over alleged N223 million contract scam awarded at some Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Yobe State.
Mr Samin Amaddin, Acting Head of Media and Publicity of EFCC, said the former SGF was cooperating with investigators and had made useful statements.
Lawal arrived at the Abuja office of the EFCC at 11:00 am on Wednesday, after which he was detained.
Vigil360 recalls that Lawal’s ordeal began on December 14, 2016, when the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the humanitarian crisis in theNorth East’ indicted him of fraud.
The former SGF was accused of using his company Rholavision Engineering Ltd to corner a N230 million contract for the clearing of “evasive plant species’’ in Yobe.
The contracts were awarded through the Presidential Initiative on Northeast (PINE).
In total, Lawal’s crime, according to the ad-hoc committee, was that he spent N570 million to cut grass, part of which he awarded to himself.
President Muhammadu Buhari later set up a panel headed by Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, to probe the allegations, along with reports that the former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) kept some $43m in an apartment in Ikoyi Lagos.
The Osinbajo report did not exculpate Babachir and President Buhari terminated his appointment and appointed Mr Boss Mustapha as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The development followed Lawal’s sack by President Muhammadu Buhari on Oct. 30.
