A week after being suspended
from his post as Chairman of Special Investigation Panel on Recovery of
Public Property, the Presidency has restored him to the post but with
some changes to his operational guidelines, Vanguard exclusively
reports.The restoration of Obono-Obla, who is also Buhari’s Senior Special
Assistant on Prosecution, to his post, followed last week’s meeting
between him and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo a day after he was
suspended by Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami.
A top Presidential official confirmed to Vanguard last night that
Buhari’s intervention and restoration of Obono-Obla to his post followed
the explanations by Osinbajo after getting briefings from the
presidential aide.
The source, however, said Obono-Obla would, henceforth, operate
under the shadow of the Vice President, who would supervise the work of
the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property.
Other conditions, which Obono-Obla must adhere strictly with,
include: taking directives from the Presidency or the Office of the
Attorney-General of the Federation, working strictly on directives or
cases referred to him by the Presidency or the AGF and not embarking on
‘expansionist’ search for materials to use under the guise of recovery
of public property.
“For Obono-Obla to operate effectively, he must bear in mind
that he cannot go outside the scope of what is given to him either by
the Presidency or the AGF and must abide by recovery issues referred to
him by the two offices,” the source explained.
Asked whether he was sacked or suspended in the first place and what the offence was, the Presidency official, said: “I
can confirm to you that Obono-Obla has not been sacked. The only thing
that must be made clear to him is that he should not assume to be
operating on his own but to subject himself to the directives of the AGF
of the Presidency on whatever recovery he wants to embark on.”
It will be recalled that when Malami suspended Obono-Obla from his
post last Sunday, he had accused him of running the presidential panel
contrary to the Act establishing it.
Obono-Obla was notified of his suspension via a letter dated November 1 with file number, which was signed by the AGF.
In the letter marked HAGF/SH/2017/VOL/1/60, Malami maintained that
activities of the panel contravened established administrative
procedures and protocols in the nation’s civil service structure.
He warned Obono-Obla to strictly comply with FG’s directive that he
should hands-off from further presiding over any activity in the name
of the panel.
Obono-Obla was also barred from further granting press interviews
without firstly securing permission to speak on any official matter.
Malami’s letter said, “Obla is also instructed to henceforth
seek clearance from the AGF before granting any media interview or
making press releases on official matters, while he is directed to
promptly provide a detailed up-to-date report on the activities of the
panel to the Minister for onward transmission to the Vice President,
Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
The letter entitled, ‘RE: Directive In Respect of Chief Okoi
Obono-Obla, Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on the recovery
of public property’, was said to be a follow-up to a previous letter from the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
No comments:
Post a Comment