Osinbajo not qualified to probe SGF —NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC,
has commended President Muhammadu Buhari
for suspending Secretary to the Government of
the Federation, SGF, Mr. David Babachir Lawal
and Director-General of National Intelligence
Agency, NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke.
Ag Pres Osinbajo
This came as Senior Staff Association of
Nigerian Universities, SSANU, yesterday, urged
the President to purge his cabinet of corrupt
elements, saying “a lot of them have one mess
or the other.”
Reacting to the suspension of the SGF and
the D-G, NIA, General Secretary of the NLC,
Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, wondered why the Vice
President should be the person to investigate
criminal allegations against the SGF.
He said: “Well, we think that it is something
that is positive. There are those who will say
that it has taken long, particularly the issue of
the SGF. Well, government has now decided to
suspend them and investigation is going on, it
is fine.
“But what we don’t understand is how an
administrative committee, chaired by the Vice
President, will be investigating what is an
alleged criminal offence. However, whatever
processes they have chosen to adopt, what is
important is that they need to bring the facts
before the nation.
“We need to know that there are no sacred
cows and at the end of the day, we hope that
justice will be done and citizens will be able to
attest that justice has been done.”
On whether the president should extend the
action to other political office holders having
corruption allegations against them, Ozo-Eson
said the normal practice was that people with
established corruption cases against them
should step aside.
He said: “Once there are allegations of
corruption and there are prima facie cases
established while such investigation is going
on, the normal practice is that people step
aside, or are suspended or they remove
themselves from the process.”
Also reacting to the suspension, National
President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Chijioke
Ugwoke, said: “Should Buhari be serious with
his anti-graft campaign, the Presidency should
not be investigating the SGF and others.
“If somebody in the Presidency is accused of
corruption, the usual anti-corruption agencies
that investigate other ones, should also
investigate the SGF. The Presidency should
not investigate Presidency, nobody should be a
judge in his own case.