By Professor Itse Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has disclosed that the suspension of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation Babachir David Lawal and Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke was inevitable.
Prof Sagay reacted to the suspension of the top government officials via a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
He stated that the SGF, Lawal violated the Code of Conduct for public officials by awarding a contract to a company he had interest in. He said the act was in violation of the Constitution and public trust.
He said, “I think the suspensions are inevitable, and in my view they are a journey to total disengagement.
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“The SGF is a top member of the administration, he should have known that for him to award a contract to his own company is absolutely prohibited by the Code of Conduct and the Constitution. What he was doing was illegal and unconstitutional.
“The worst is that he didn’t even award the contract for relevant activity such as for food, rather it was for grass cutting, which is totally unrelated to the needs of this people for very basic life saving materials.”
Speaking on the suspension of the NIA DG, the presidential adviser stated that the motive behind keeping secret such huge amount of money was enough for him to be suspended and subsequently sacked.
He said the fact that the money was approved under the last administration was not enough to keep the present President off the details.
“On the suspension of the NIA DG, it is even worse in my view. How can you hold over $40million of State money in a private apartment, without the knowledge of the Head of State to whom you’re responsible?
“So they’ve turned themselves into a government of their own. They didn’t inform the present administration that they got this money from the Jonathan administration and this is what it was meant for and this is what is left.
“Once they didn’t do that, then they were all on a criminal conduct which should lead to what has happened now. It’s very clear that they intended to convert it to their private use. That’s why I said everything is inevitable.”
