"Corruption in the judiciary,others is treated with insecticide while corruption in the govt is treated with deodorant"-Shehu Sani

Senator Shehu Sani has described the content of President Buhari's letter on the Secretary to the Government (SGF) Babachir Lawal as a 'lie'. The letter from the presidency to the Senate, read by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, at plenary on Tuesday, states that the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East which indicted Babachir Lawal "lacked the principle of fair hearing" and therefore he can't remove Lawal.

"I am of the view that by other considerations that may arise as a result of subsequent investigation of Babachir by the interim Ad Hoc Committee, the current report does not meet the principles of fair hearing," the letter reads.

"You are invited to note that none application of principles of fair hearing by the Senate Ad Hoc Committee is a clear contravention of Section 36 Sub-section (1) of the 1999 Constitution. It is also against all principles of rule of law as enunciated in the Nigerian Legal System as well as the rules of the National Assembly Committees on handling of public petitions.

In the light of the foregoing, I am not able to approve the recommendation to remove and prosecute Babachir on the basis of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee Report dated 15th December 2016. I had also conducted further investigation based on Babachir’s response to the allegations and issues raised in the Senate’s resolution,"

In his submission, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, Shehu Sani, said that he stands by the report of that committee.

"As far as I am concerned, on behalf of myself and the committee, what we did was a thorough job, we invited all the companies concerned, we invited the SGF and he sent us the Secretary of the Presidential Initiative on the North East.

"The secretary testified under oath that he is competent enough, he came with tons and tons of documents which we went through and then we came out with our report.

"We must in every respect fight corruption within the kitchen as we do in the veranda; if we don’t do that then we are being hypocritical",