Grass-cutting contract: Osinbajo panel grills Babachir Lawal overnight

For the second time within a week, the Presidential Investigative Panel, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, last night grilled the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, David Babachir Lawal, over the controversial N220 million grass-cutting contract awarded last year.

A competent source confirmed to Vanguard that the embattled SGF appeared in the night shortly after the Vice President returned from an official engagement in Lagos to Abuja.

Lawal, who had earlier been questioned by the three-man panel, last week, was summoned last night to answer crucial questions on whether the contract was captured in the 2016 federal budget and if, indeed, the award was scrutinised and approved by the Presidential Initiative for the North-East, PINE, and whether it was advertised in accordance with extant procurement laws.

The embattled SGF, according to a source, was also asked to justify why the clearing of wild grass in Yobe State became a priority programme of the PINE, when the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, had not been adequately addressed.

Besides that, Lawal was given another chance last night to clear the air on why the company he claimed he had resigned from, Rholavision Technologies Limited, was awarded the N220million grass-cutting job.

“He was also given the ample opportunity to defend why the cash from the contract sum was immediately transferred to his ‘former’ company, when in reality records from the Corporate Affairs Commission proved otherwise,” the source said.
Vanguard, May 2, 2017

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