By Inibehe Udosen
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal has come under serious criticism from Nigerians, following indications that he supports and promotes corruption and bribery in a bid to produce APC candidates in elections.
Loading ...The Akwa Ibom All Progressives Congress Candidate in the April Governorship election Mr Umana Umana revealed Lawal’s inclinations to sharp practices in Uyo while responding to criticisms from the leader of the party in the state, Senator John Akpanudoedehe.
Mr Umana who spoke through his media advisor Engr Ita Awak on Planet Radio Uyo, revealed that a committee chaired by Mr Lawal was set up by the national leadership of the APC to resolve the crises in the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the party.
He said that Mr Lawal convinced APC gubernatorial candidate to ‘settle’ (bribe) Senator Udoedehe with some (undisclosed) cash inducements in addition to power to produce five commissioners and five local government chairmen in the next local government elections as well as emerge the new Minister from the State.
Ita Awak the Akwa Ibom publicity secretary of APC said the SGF tried to persuade Senator Udoedehe on the bribery offer, but that Udoedehe rejected the bribe and even tore the agreement oath form which he threw back at Mr Babachir Lawal, before storming out of the meeting
In an interview earlier, Udoedehe had accused Umana of going round to buy his way into the heart of every APC major stakeholder in the country.
Senator Udoedehe hinted that the current SGF and his team were ‘pacified’ to the tone of N1.3bn naira out of the N1.6bn he realized from selling one of his houses in Ikoyi, Lagos.
This is not the first time the SGF is linked to corruption as indications emerged on Friday that chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, wrote to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, advising on the disqualification of the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Prince Abubakar Audu, from contesting the November 21 governorship election in the state.
Audu, a former governor of Kogi State, won the primary election of the APC on August 30 amidst calls by some Nigerians that fielding a candidate currently standing trial for corruption was a mockery of the governing party’s much touted war against graft.
In a letter dated September 21, 2015, with reference number EFCC/EC/SGF/03/59, and titled “F.R.N Vs Abubakar Audu & 1 other Charge No: FCT/CR/115/ 2013”, the EFCC chairman wrote to the SGF reminding him that Mr. Audu was standing trial for corruption.
“The candidate was arraigned by the Commission for abuse of office, theft of public funds and money laundering during his tenure as Executive Governor of Kogi State between 1999 and 2003 at both Kogi High Court, Lokoja in 2006 and the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo Abuja in 2013”, Mr. Lamorde wrote.
“The Lokoja case was stalled for six years on the account of frivolous interlocutory applications by the accused person, which has taken us twice to the Supreme Court and eventually decided in the commission’s favour on 23rd November 2012.
However the advice against Audu was ignored while the EFCC chairman was summarily axed by the federal government.
Several Akwa Ibom people in the diaspora, as well as some lawyers have fumed at the ugly development, saying that APC leaders have so far displayed corruption as their authentic rope to power.
