EFCC grants bail to sacked ex-SGF Babachir Lawal

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has granted an administrative bail to the sacked former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal.
Lawal, who was arrested by the EFCC, has been in EFCC custody of the commission since Wednesday. He was ,however, released on bail on Friday evening.
A source close to the commission told The Daily Times last night that Lawal was granted administrative bail on the grounds that he cooperated with the operatives during his interrogation.
He added that the commission would take necessary action on Lawal in due course, saying that the sacked ex-SGF would soon be arraigned in court.
The Daily Times recalls that the detention of Lawal happened barely 24 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a statement against President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him not to seek a re-election in 2019.
The development had promoted speculations in certain quarters that Lawal’s arrest was sequel to Obasanjo’s statement.
But the EFCC has denied such claim, saying that its action had nothing to do with Obasanjo’s statements.
The commission added that though both incidents were coincidental, its action on Lawal was sequel to the outcome of investigation which it commenced last year.
The sacked SGF’s travails began on December 14, 2016, when the Senate ad-hoc committee on humanitarian crisis in the north-east indicted him of alleged corruption.
The lawmakers had implicated Lawal in a grass-cutting contract awarded to his firm for the clearing of “invasive plant species” in Yobe state, through the Presidential Initiative on Northeast (PINE).
The lawmakers also accused Lawal of alleged spending of N570million to cut grass.