[dropcap]A[/dropcap] civil society organisation, Citizens Action To Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) has described as “unfortunate lies”, the interim report by the Senate ad-hoc committee which indicted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir Lawal, over alleged abuse of the Public Procurement Acts in contract awarded by the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE).
Co-convener of the group, Ibrahim Garba Wala, while presenting the report of its independent investigations on the grass cutting scandal in Abuja Tuesday, stated that the contract was carried out contrary to the Senate ad-hoc committee report.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“CATBAN can assert with authority that the contract was indeed carried out. The claims that it was meant to clear grass in IDP camp or that nothing has been done are nothing but unfortunate lies,”[/perfectpullquote]
Wala said while presenting the report on CATBAN’s facts -finding mission to the North-east region.
Wala said the testimonies of people they met and the evidence before them proved that it was a worthwhile contract that was executed for the benefit of the people.
The report showed that the said grass cutting contract was originally tagged “Award of contract for removal of invasive plants along river channels and 115 hectares of simplified village irrigation operation in Your state.”
The findings from the report also revealed that Rheolavision Engineering, which is linked to the SGF, was not the main contractor that got the job.
“Rheolavision was engaged only as a consultant even though the Senate committee created the impression that the company of the SGF executed the contract,” the report added.
The report also revealed that the SGF actually resigned from Rheolavision Engineering and all the other companies he had shareholdings in through a letter of resignation to his lawyers, D. D Azura and co, on August 28, 2015.
Abusidiqu
