APC chieftain wants Buhari to sack incompetent, corrupt appointees

A member of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Timi Frank, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack appointees, including cabinet members, who had brought the Federal Government to disrepute.

He made the call in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, while reacting to the suspension of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal by the president.

In the suspension announced in a statement by Mr Femi Adesina, his Media Adviser, on Wednesday in Abuja, Buhari also ordered investigation into allegations of violations of law and due process against the SGF in the award of contracts.

Also suspended by the president was the Director-General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb. Ayo Oke.

Lawal was alleged to have committed the offences as Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE).

Frank said the suspension of the SGF and the NIA boss was long overdue.

Oke’s suspension followed the recent discovery of large amount of money in local and foreign currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in an apartment on 6, Osborne Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

The NIA and Oke had claimed that the money belonged to the organisation.

The President also ordered full-scale investigation into the development.

Frank had earlier written an open letter to Buhari, demanding openness in the handling of controversial money discovered by the EFCC.

According to him, the suspension of the NIA boss will boost the confidence of Nigerians in the Federal Government’s fight against corruption in the country.

He expressed confidence that the three-member committee set up by the president to investigate the matters would come up with a result that would please Nigerians.

“The president should take more bold steps like this to sack all the incompetent hands in his government.

“Some of these actions are long overdue; Nigerians want to see a type of action President Zuma took in South Africa.

“This government must do more to ensure that the act of corruption become a thing of the past in Nigeria by getting to the root of this controversial 49 million dollars,’’ he said.

Frank advised that anybody found wanting at the end of the investigation should be prosecuted.