•Lawyers fault Mongunu’s membership of probe panel
From Ismail Omipidan and Romanus Okoye, Lagos, Romanus Ugwu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Following revelations that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major-General Babagana Mongunu, was briefed by the suspended Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, about the money recovered from the Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos and the operations of the intelligence agency, many Nigerians have asked him to disqualify himself from the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo panel investigating the matter.
Vice President Osinbajo, Mongunu and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, are members of the presidential probe panel looking into the seized N15 billion in the Ikoyi apartment and the controversial Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps contracts in the North-East, for which Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, was suspended.
Speaking on Mongunu’s membership of the panel, Giwa Victor, human rights lawyer and national coordinator, Advocate for People’s Justice, said it would be a misnomer for the NSA to be part of it.
He said it would be against the rule of natural justice for the NSA to continue to parade himself as member of the probe panel since he was believed to have been aware of the $43 million.
“If the NSA was aware, it means he has questions to answer. Why did he feign ignorance? He is now a party. Being aware of the money is enough reason for him to disqualify himself. He too should be invited by the panel to answer some questions. In a normal situation, the DG of NIA should inform the NSA since he controls all the security agencies.
“He ought to have drawn the attention of the President to such funds. If the President seems not be aware, it means the NSA did not tell him. If the DG of NIA is claiming that the NSA was aware, he cannot be in the panel probing the recovery. He should disqualify himself and be invited as a party to tell the panel what he knows.”
Also reacting, former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ebony State, Dr. Benjamin Igwenyi, said not only should Mongunu be excused for the panel, he should be suspended from office as NSA and be made to face a panel.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Daily Sun in Abuja yesterday, the former Attorney General said if the NSA was briefed about the money orally or in writing, he ought to have informed President Buhari about it.
He said if anything, Mongunu should be suspended as well for failing to brief the President about the money after he was allegedly told.
Said he: “He should not be part of the panel, because if the NIA DG informed him, whether orally or in writing and the suspension came and he didn’t stop it…If the NSA is informed and he didn’t inform the President, it was bad. He ought to be suspended, because any information at the disposal of the NSA should be available to the President. Under the rule of law, he is not supposed to be a member of the panel.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Emeka Ngige while responding to the dispute over disclosure of the $43million said: “My own take is that Osinbajo panel be allowed to conduct its investigations without distraction by the media. The DG of NIA has already appeared before the panel and presented his memorandum on the subject matter. Let us now wait and see what the panel makes of his testimony. I believe the panel has the capacity to deal with all issues, make appropriate findings and recommendations.”
Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) did not only fault the involvement of the NSA, he said the idea of the panel itself was uncalled for.
Said Ozekhome: “First of all, why will the Vice President, who should receive the report, be a member of the panel? If it were other people DSS, EFCC would have raided their homes in the night. It all amounts to double standards and trying to protect their own. Ordinarily, the National Intelligence Agency Act provides that issues between the intelligence agencies should be treated internally and not made external. Or could it be that the money was kept for 2019 general elections and because a Pandora box has been opened, everyone is denying knowledge of it? If the DG, NIA said the NSA, who was appointed by the president, was briefed about the money as soon as he was appointed, then it will not be wrong to say the President was aware of the money.
“So why wait till now to do what they are doing? And if they are really serious about it, why not allow EFCC do its investigation and charge the matter to court, instead of setting up a panel, which the present government has never done before?”
The issue, now commonly referred to as Ikoyigate, spilled into the open following a raid by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of a luxury apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, where $43 million, N23 million and 27,000 pounds were discovered, on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.
NIA claimed that the money was allotted to it for covert operations.
The presidency weighed in by suspending Oke on April 19 and set up a three-man committee led by Osinbajo, to investigate the allegations about the recovered money.
The panel has since grilled principal actors in the saga. Though the panel has been sittings in camera, there was a revelation at the weekend that the NSA was duly briefed by Oke about the money long before the veil of secrecy was lifted off it by the EFCC.
According to the source, the president was first briefed on the state of affairs in the agency in April 2015.
A source revealed: “The funds were itemised as $289 million intervention fund approved and released to the agency by the Jonathan administration in November 2014, while the second briefing was in January 2016, via a memo to the NSA where the DG gave more details of the funds.
“Based on the second briefing, the NSA set up an audit team headed by a Brigadier General, which inspected the projects and submitted a report in February 2016.
“The NSA wrote back to the DG, NIA on May 17, 2016, stating that the detailed report of NIA’s projects and exercises had been presented to the president and the president was pleased with their work.”
As the panel winds down preparatory to submitting report this week, acting Director General, NIA, Ambassador Arab Yadam and the deputy Director Operations, Ambassador Emmanuel Okafor have disowned the embattled Oke, insisting that they knew nothing about the cash N15 billion cash.
Yadam who is the deputy Director in charge of Administration and Okafor, were said to have told the Osinbajo Investigative Panel, that Oke ran “a one-man-show” at the agency.
Sources close to the panel told Daily Sun that the duo had last Thursday told the panel that Oke “should carry his own cross for not carrying the top echelon of the agency along even in the day-to-day running of NIA.’’
They also accused Oke of “arbitrariness” and refusal to carry both President Buhari and Monguno along, concerning the true nature of the “covert operation” that the agency was supposed to undertake with the huge sum of money .
Daily Sun also gathered that the suspended Director General had told the Committee that Monguno knew about the recovered money .
Oke claimed he wrote a memo to the NSA on the custody of the $43.4million and that he stated clearly in the said memo that the funds were for “covert operations.”
But sources told Daily Sun that it was when the Presidential Committee on Purchase of Arms, which Monguno is a member, stumbled on irregular payments by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to NIA that the NSA confronted Oke over the matter.
One of the sources added that it was at that point that the Oke told the NSA that the monies were released to the agency for “covert operations by the Jonathan administration but he didn’t disclose any further.”
The source continued, “the lack of full disclosure necessitated the NSA to write a memo to the President about the huge cash that was released to the agency by Jonathan on March 24, 2016.
“In the memo, Monguno clearly stated that although the objectives of celebrating NIA’s 30th anniversary and executing some covert operations seem noble, there is the possibility of the funds being abused by the Agency’s leadership.
“Oke erred by not disclosing fully the source of the fund, where it is located and the appropriate expenditure in respect of the projects that NIA was doing either in Lagos or Abuja.’’