The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has set up a crack team to probe the fraud allegations against the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal.
A source in the anti-graft agency exclusively confirmed this to Channels Television on Thursday in a phone interview.
The team, made up of special investigators from the EFCC, is to examine all the details relating to the N200m contract for the cutting of grass in the North East which is linked to the former SGF.
This comes more than six months after Mr Lawal and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr Ayodele Oke, were suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The President suspended both men on April 20, days after Mr Oke was linked to the $43.45 million cash recovered by EFCC operatives at an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos.
He had also set up a three-man panel headed by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to investigate the corruption allegations levelled against both men with a directive to get back to the President after 14 days.
Upon completion of its investigation, the committee was unable to submit its report on schedule as President Buhari went on medical leave, a trip that kept him away from the country for more than three months.
After the delay in taking a decision on the fate of both men had attracted criticism since the President’s return to the country in August, President Buhari sacked Lawal and Oke on October 30.
Hours later, the Presidency said it would not shield anyone found to be culpable the anti-corruption war from prosecution.
On November 1, the EFCC consequently invited Mr Oke and his wife whom it claimed the apartment in Ikoyi where the funds were recovered was rented in her name.
“In furtherance of its investigative activities to unravel the circumstances surrounding the $43.45 million cash recovered by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Lagos sometime in April 2017, the Commission has invited former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayodele Oke and his wife, Folashade Oke,” Wilson Uwujaren, the commission’s spokesperson had said in a statement.
CHANNELS
