Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress in some states of the federation have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the suspended Secretary to
Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress in some states of the federation have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, and the suspended Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, to save his anti-graft war.
The chieftains made the calls against the backdrop of several probe reports submitted to the Presidency, which they said appeared to have indicted the affected top government officials of corrupt practices. The APC chieftains warned that the President’s inaction on the reports of the panels that investigated the SGF, NHIS and NIA bosses could erode his integrity, bring down his government and kill his anti-corruption campaign.
Babachir Lawal
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had on Wednesday, August 23, 2017, submitted to the Presidency the report of the committee that investigated allegations of corruption against Lawal and Oke. Similarly, a committee set up by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had discovered that frauds to the tune of N919m allegedly took place under Yusuf, who had spent less than a year at the NHIS. The report was then sent to the President on September 4. While Oke was supposed to have proceeded on pre-retirement leave from August as his tenure ends in November, there has been no official decision by Buhari on allegations against the NIA boss.
In view of this, the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice, Mr. Razaq Atunwa, called on the President to sack and prosecute the affected government officials. Atunwa, who is representing Asa/Ilorin West Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, said Buhari’s delay in taking action was portraying his government in bad light, adding that the reports on the top government functionaries must not be swept under the carpet.
“If someone has committed a financial crime or fraud, he must not only be dismissed from office but be made to face the music. It is for the court to decide if the person is guilty of that offence or not.”
Ayo Oke
An APC chieftain in Ogun State, Chief Bode Mustapha, said if the report of the findings indicted the SGF, he would expect the President to immediately act on it. “We don’t need this kind of suspense now. It is capable of bringing President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration into disrepute. He (Buhari) is allowing the Peoples Democratic Party to have a field day in accusing the APC of shielding corrupt people, whether rightly or wrongly. This is a big shame.”
An APC chieftain in Adamawa State, Mark Wosi, who called for the sacking of the indicted government officials, said from all indications, Buhari was stalling on the issues because the men involved were his loyalists. Wosi said, “You can’t keep telling us you are fighting corruption while there are corruption allegations against people around you and yet you can’t do anything about it. This only means you are the father of corruption. The integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari is now in doubt with all these fraud cases under his nose.”
Usman Yusuf
In like manner, a chieftain of Buhari’s party in Ondo State, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being accused of an anti-party misdemeanour, condemned the President’s silence on the various allegations of fraud against some government officials. The party chieftain alleged that a cabal in the Presidency had become uncontrollable by Buhari, saying most of the suspected fraud cases were, in one way or another, connected to some members of the cabal, making it impossible for the President to act on the cases.
Punch
