Grass cutting scandal: EFCC arraigns Babachi Lawal today

Andrew Orolua, Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will today arraign former Secretary to the Federal government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, before the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja. The Daily Times gathered last night that Lawal has been served with the 10 count charge preferred against him by EFCC. Babachir Lawal, who is in custody of the anti-graft agency, will be arraigned alongside three other accomplices and his companies – the Rholavision Engineering Limited and Josmon Technologies Limited before Justice Okeke. The accomplices are Babachir’s brother – Hamidu David Lawal; Sulaiman Abubakar, a staff of Rholavision Engineering Limited and the Managing director of the company, Apeh Monday. Lawal’s travails began on December 14, 2016, when the Senate ad-hoc committee on “mounting humanitarian crisis in the north-east” indicted him of fraud in a contract awarded for the clearing of “invasive plant species” in Yobe State, through the Presidential Initiative on Northeast (PINE). PINE, which was under Lawal, was at the time unable to account for N2.5 billion allocated to it for the alleviation of the IDPs’ suffering. Lawal’s crime, according to the ad-hoc committee, included his alleged spending of N570m to cut grass. Rholavision Engineering Ltd was also said to have got suspicious payments of N200m from the contract. Rholavision’s bank statements and other documents had shown how Josmon Technologies Ltd, a company that got the contract from PINE to clear grass for N248, 939, 231, made cash deposits of N10m into Lawal’s company’s account 20 times from March 29. Although the former SGF had claimed that he resigned from his company on August 15, 2015, and as a result was not a party to whatever business it contracted, the document showed that from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that he was a director of Rholavision until September 16, 2016, when he wrote to the commission informing it of his intention to relinquish 1,500,000 ordinary shares. President Buhari had since October 31, 2017 sacked Lawal.