How BVN nailed suspended SGF, Babachir Lawal in Senate’s PINE grass-cutting report
Contrary to preliminary speculations that N200 million was spent on grass cutting, not less than N530 million was allocated for that purpose in the Presidential Initiative on North East (PINE) deals of the embattled Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal .
However, the driving factor that assisted Senator Shehu Sani led Ad Hoc Committee of enquiry was that all payments linkages traced via Bank verification Number (BVN) aligned with the BVN of the embattled SGF.
The Committee chairman revealed on the floor of the Senate that apart from payments made to Rollavision Limited, the only known company to Lawal, other payments to 13 companies were related to him as their BVN matched with that of Rollavision Limited.
The report of the committee also revealed that the N530 million grass cutting contracts were allocated to top government functionaries at the federal level meaning that more heads may role if deeper enquiries are to be made on the matter.
Accordingly, the Senate during consideration of the report recommended further investigations by the anti graft agencies.
Details from the report seen by Business Hilights correspondent at the National Assembly showed that the suspended SGF, Babachir David Lawal, was one of those whose companies benefited from the grass cutting contract which ran contrary to Public Procurement Act.
Whereas the Yobe State Government has since distanced itself from the execution of the contract, saying it was not aware of such, the report disclosed that Lawal’s company, Rollavision, got N200 million for a grass cutting contract in Yobe State.
Senator Sani’s Committee also discovered that SGF lied when he said he resigned from the company before his emergence as SGF as he, Lawal was still a signatory to the account of Rollavision until February 17, 2017.
This was confirmed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Senate Committee said.
The report also said the PINE spent a whopping N50 million on putting together a poorly organized and attended conference on the North East.
Senators was taken aback when it was observed that out of the entire allocation that ran into millions of naira, only N2 million was discovered to have been spent on the Internally Displaced persons (IDPs).
In another development, Business Hilights learnt that the report of the Vice president’s Committee on the same matter is ready for submission next week Monday, but analysts say, the position of the Senate on the matter shall override after all.
