Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) has stated that the suspension of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal was a right step in a right direction.
He said Lawal violated the Code of Conduct for public officials by awarding a contract to a company he had an interest in.
Reacting to the suspension through a statement on Wednesday, Sagay said Lawal’s action was a violation of the Constitution and public trust and that his suspension was unavoidable.
He said, “I think the suspensions are inevitable, and in my view they are a journey to total disengagement.
“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, Sagay said: “This one 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.”
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