Group gives Senate 48-hrs to drop charges against SGF or face…

Civil Society Organizations under the auspices of Forum of Civil Organizations in Nigeria have threatened to occupy the National Assembly if the Senate fails to reverse its decision demanding the resignation of Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF).

The CSOs, an umbrella body of civil society groups, nongovernmental organisations, ethics pressure groups and others concerned with good governance gave the senate 48 hours to drop the move and apologise to the SGF.

President of the group Ishiaku Nok noted that the CSOs would mobilise over 10,000 of their members against the senate if it fails to meet the group’s demand. “We will like to critically look at some of the oppositional mechanism that could hinder the much expected development in our country and suggest ways to carefully avoid them as we proceed to year 2017.”

“We have observed with dismay some baseless and uncertain allegations purpoted against the personality of the SGF Mr Babachir Lawal and we wish to state that the senate has no moral justification to call for the SGF’s resignation,’’ Nok said.

He pointed out that the senate which leadership had faced series of allegations of doctoring of the senate rule book and forgery and falsification of assets declaration at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), never resigned their positions.

The group wondered why the senate should now turn around and demand the resignation of the SGF when it refused to resign its position even with a handful of corruption allegations levelled against its leadership.

Nok further said: “The assertions of the senate against the SGF and other appointees of the executive is perceived to be a fight back to the fight against corruption, as it has been said that when you fight corruption, corruption must fight back.

“The senate investigative panel never gave the SGF opportunity of fair hearing before it arrived at that decision.

“We perceive that the call for the resignation of the SGF is designed to criminalise the affairs of the executive to create distraction for the leadership of the executive and force a negative change in the cabinet.

The group applauded President Buhari’s fight against corruption and urged Nigerians to give the present administration more time to succeed.