$8M Fraud: Court Has Exonerated Me- Babachir Lawal Tackles CSO

The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, has reacted to the planned protest by the Human & Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission do not revisit some high profile cases which were allegedly abandoned. 

Recall THE WHISTLER reported last week how HEDA listed some high profile cases which it alleged were abandoned and had asked the two agencies to revisit them.

One of such cases the organisation mentioned was the case of alleged financial impropriety against Babachir Lawal involving $8,000,000, and that of a former Director General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke involving $43,000,000 among others. 

The Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraju in a statement said the organisation will stage a protest at the Lagos offices of the two agencies if the cases were not revisited. 

He said: “Against this backdrop, HEDA has decided to organise the protest as a step towards drawing attention once again to the issue of corruption and the unresolved corruption cases in Nigeria, demanding immediate action.”

THE WHISTLER had also reported earlier this year that the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja had thrown out the N544 million contract fraud case instituted by EFCC against the former SGF.and others.

EFCC had filed a 10-count charge bordering on fraud, diversion of funds, and criminal conspiracy against him and others while presenting several prosecution witnesses against them.

Reacting to this in a phone conversation with THE WHISTLER on Tuesday, the former SGF said he has been cleared of the charges. 

He said: “I have seen where you have written that I stole $8m dollars, you said you’re going to protest because the government refused to prosecute us. So, I was surprised because I never heard about it, until someone forwarded it to me from Kaduna. 

“Those that even sued me that I awarded my company a contract, the court acquitted me because of no case submission,  if you read the judgement. The judge said this guy has done nothing. So people are coming up with this one again that EFCC refused to prosecute me because I have N8M dollars.”