Damage control:
SGF, NIA chief’s suspension an afterthought – Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Ayo 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 an “afterthought and a prelude to the official cover-up of the N13 billion cash found in a residential apartment in Lagos.

Fayose slammed the Federal Government for setting up a three-man committee to investigate the crime and sidelining the anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Department of State Services (DSS).

The governor wondered why the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Administration unleashed EFCC and DSS on opposition figures and judges under investigation while setting up a committee to investigate its officials accused of corruption.

Accusing the Buhari government of becoming an embarrassment to Nigerians with what he called the macabre dance of shame, Fayose alleged that the President is fast losing control of his administration, accusing it of hypocrisy in its fight against corruption.

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.”

“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.”

“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.”