Read what PDP asks FG to do to Babachir, Oke

– The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP says the suspended SGF, Babachir David Lawal and the DG of NIA, Ayo Oke, should be arrested and detained the same way PDP chieftains are being handled by the EFCC

– The party states that rather than Osinbajo’s panel, an independent commission of inquiry should be constituted to investigate the suspended officials

– PDP accuses the Buhari administration of double standard The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the arrest of the suspended secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal and the director general of the national intelligence agency (NIA), Ayo Oke.

It would be recalled that the presidency suspended both Babachir and Oke over corruption allegations levelled against them and ordered for their investigation by a three-man panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

But the PDP in a statement on Thursday, April 20, said the two officials should have been arrested and detained the same way PDP chieftains were being handled by the EFCC, Daily Trust reports. The party said rather than Osinbajo’s panel, an independent commission of inquiry should be constituted to investigate the suspended officials. “We are alarmed at the suspension of the SGF at a time that Nigerians and the international community are excitedly enjoying the theatre of the absurd playing out with the recovery of huge sums of money without owners. “Now the APC-led federal government suddenly realized the corruption allegation levelled against the SGF; and instead of arresting and detaining him as the government has been doing to PDP members and other Nigerians, he was rather suspended and a committee set-up to investigate him. This is to say the least, double standard.

“We are at a loss why the President would set up a panel comprising members of his cabinet to investigate other senior very powerful members of the same Executive. Where is the transparency in that?” the statement said. Meanwhile, the presidency has dismissed media reports that the suspended director general of the national intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayo Oke, had cried after he learnt about his suspension.

ROYAL NEWS recalls that the suspended director general of the NIA was reported to have wept as he made frantic efforts to enter the Presidential Villa, following his suspension on Wednesday, April 19. But the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who spoke on the incident in Abuja on Thursday, April 20, described the reports as “unfair and uncharitable.’’ He stated that witnesses to Oke’s visit to the vice president on the fateful day and his own personal account clearly indicated that the DG did not cry as widely reported in the social and some traditional media.