President Muhammadu Buhari has terminated the appointments of the suspended Secretary to the Government (SGF) of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.
The president also appointed Mr Boss Mustapha as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Mustapha’s appointment takes immediate effect, according to a statement yesterday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina.
The new Secretary to the Government of the Federation, until his appointment, was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National inland waterways Authority (NIWA).
Daily Trust had exclusively reported on July 30 that the three-man investigation panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo recommended that Babachir and Oke be sacked.
Adesina confirmed yesterday that Buhari terminated Babachir and Oke’s appointments after studying and accepting the report of the panel, which also had the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) as members.
He said Buhari further approved the setting up of a three-member panel to, among other things, look into the operational, technical and administrative structure of the NIA and make appropriate recommendations.
President Buhari had on April 19 suspended Babachir and Oke and set up the panel to investigate alleged infractions against both officials within a period of two weeks.
Consequently, the most senior permanent secretary in the Office of the SGF, Dr Habibat Lawal and Oke’s senior deputy, Ambassador Arab Yadam, had since acted as SGF and Director-General of the NIA respectively.
Osinbajo had on August 23 submitted the report of the investigations to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Babachir was probed for allegedly awarding millions of naira contracts to a company in which he had interest, Global Vision Limited, under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE).
A Senate Committee on Humanitarian Crisis in the Northeast, which had earlier found the suspended SGF culpable of alleged complicity in a N200 million grass-cutting contract to clear “Invasive plant species” in Yobe State, had demanded his resignation and prosecution.
Oke was investigated for alleged $43.4 million operations cash found by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at apartment 7B in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. He had reportedly claimed that the money belonged to the NIA and was approved by former president Goodluck Jonathan for some covert operations.
The panel was mandated to uncover circumstances by which the NIA came into possession of the funds and find out how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, as well as to establish whether or not there was a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.
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