The meeting of the Federal Executive Council that holds every Wednesday failed to hold yesterday.
The meeting yesterday would have afforded President Muhammadu Buhari, who returned to the country just on Saturday after 104 days of medical vacation in the UK, the opportunity of presiding over the council meeting for the first time in over three months.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed in a statement that the meeting would not hold. He however failed to disclose the reason behind the decision not to hold the meeting.
But he said Buhari would receive the report of the investigation committee into the allegations against the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke.
The statement read, “The meeting of the Federal Executive Council will not hold today (yesterday).
“President Muhammadu Buhari, will however, receive the report of the investigation committee into the allegations against the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at 12 noon, in his office.”
Buhari has been operating from his residence since Monday while the Presidency claimed that his main office had been destroyed by rodents and needed to be renovated.
Many Nigerians have however taken to their Facebook pages and Twitter handles to lampoon the presidency for flying such stories in the public space. Some said Buhari is not healthy enough to resume work, hence the resort to story spinning by the President’s media aides.
The President had on April 19 suspended Lawal and Oke and constituted a three-man committee led by Osinbajo to investigate them.
The panel investigated allegations of violations of law and due process made against Lawal in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East while it probed Oke on the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, for which NIA is laying claim.
The committee which had the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, as members was billed to submit its report to Buhari on May 8 but could not do so because the President left the country on May 7 for medical treatment in London.
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