SGF makes U-turn, says he’ll now honour Senate invite

Barely a day after the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr David Lawal, told the Senate that he would not honour an invitation extended to him by the Senate ad-hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North East, he has made a sudden U-turn.

Rather, he has begged the Senator Shehu Sani-led committee members to reschedule the meeting for a later date, claiming that there is “a pressing engagement of government which clashed with the date and time of the hearing.”

Mr Lawal, had in a letter, dated March 22nd, 2017 and addressed to the committee through its chairman, Senator Sani, said he would not appear before the committee. In the letter, he explained that he had already gone to court to challenge the committee’s invitation to him to appear before it.

“I wish to kindly request that you draw the attention of the other members of the committee that I will not be able to appear before the committee primarily because I have court to challenge the invitation among others,” Lawal had said in the letter to Senator Sani.

According to the earlier letter from the committee inviting the SGF, he was expected to appear as part of the ongoing investigation into claims that funds earmarked for humanitarian crisis in the North-East were mismanaged.

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The letter from the adhoc committee had read: “The Senate at its sitting on 4th October, 2016, debated on a motion “mounting humanitarian crisis in the north east” after which an ad-hoc committee was constituted.

“The committee was to conduct a public hearing in order to ascertain how much has been released to the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) and also to ascertain how these funds have been utilized from inception to date.

“The committee was also expected to investigate the diversion of grains and other food items from the Strategic Grain Reserves, NEMA and other sources for the IDPs.

“Consequently, the committee held a three day public hearing between Dec. 6th and 8th 2016, even though some of the invited stakeholders refused to attend.”

But Mr Lawal in the new letter, did not make any reference to the suit he claimed to have filed in a law court.

Part of the new letter reads: “I wish to kindly request that you (Sani) draw the attention of the other members of the Committee that l will not be able to appear before the committee. I kindly request a rescheduling of the hearing, please.”

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