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Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has floored the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on N544m scandalous grass-cutting charges preferred against him by the anti-graft commission, receiving a judgement of freedom from an FCT High Court for want of diligent prosecution.
Discharging and acquitting him, Friday, November 18, the Court presided over by Justice Charles Agbaza held that the anti-graft agency failed woefully to establish prima facie case against the Ex-SGF.
In a ruling on no case submission made by Babachir Lawal, Justice Agbaza held that from EFCC’s presentations, no ingredient of any offence was made out by the 11 witnesses that testified for the commission.
The Judge held that EFCC failed woefully to establish that Babachir Lawal was either a member of the Presidential Initiative for North East (PINE) that awarded the contract or a member of the Ministerial Tenders Board that vetted and gave approval to the scandalous contract.
Besides, Justice Agbaza held that EFCC also failed to link Babachir Lawal with Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) that issued a certificate of no objection to the contract before it was awarded.
The Judge, therefore, discharged and acquitted all the defendants in the 10-count criminal charges against them for want of evidence to link them with the purported offences.
Babachir Lawal, alongside his younger brother, Hamidu Lawal; Suleiman Abubakar; Apeh Monday and two companies, Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited were prosecuted by the EFCC before Justice Charles Agbaza.
They faced a 10-count charge bordering on fraud relating to the removal of invasive plant species to the tune of N544 million for which they pleaded not guilty.
The EFCC had on Monday, October 30, 2020 re-arraigned the former SGF, Babachir Lawal, before Justice Agbaza.
The charge reads inter inter alia: “That you, Engineer Babachir David Lawal, while being the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and a director of Rholavision Engineering Ltd on or about the 22nd August 2016 at Abuja, in the Abuja Judicial Division of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, did knowingly hold indirectly, private interest in the contract awarded to Josmon Technological Ltd but executed by Rholavision Engineering Ltd for the removal of invasive plant species and simplified irrigation to the tune of N258,132,735.99 (Two Hundred and Fifty-eight Million, One hundred and Thirty-two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty-five Naira, Ninety-nine kobo) only, by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) though the Presidential Initiative for North East (PINE) and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 12 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.”
Before his freedom, Babachir Lawal had come under severe criticisms as to how mere grass cutting should gulp as much as N544m in a country where as many as 133 million citizens face multi-dimensional poverty, according to statistics from National Bureau of Statistics./SHARE THIS
- Tags: Babachir Lawal, EFCC